NEW  THOUGHTS 
ON  AN  OLD  BOOK 


WILLIAM  A.  BROWN 


tihrary  of  t:he  theological  ^^minaty 

PRINCETON  .  NEW  JERSEY 

FROM  THE  LIBRARY  OF 
ROBERT  ELLIOTT  SPEER 


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NEW  THOUGHTS 
ON  AN  OLD 


BY     ^ 

WILLIAM  A.  BROWN 


THE  ABINGDON  PRESS 
NEW  YORK  CINCINNATI 


Copyright,  1920,  by 
WILLIAM  A.  BROWN 


The  Bible  text  used  in  this  volume  is  taken  from  the  American 
Standard  Edition  of  the  Revised  Bible,  C9pyrighted,  1901,  by 
Thomaa  Nelson  &  Sons,  and  is  used  by  permission. 


CONTENTS 

OKdiPTBB  PAGE 

I.  What  Is  the  Greatest  Achieve- 
ment?   5 

II.  It  Was  Theirs:  It  Is  Now  Ours.  15 

III.  A  Simple  Question  OF  Authors  .  24 

IV.  Where  They  Already  Had  Been  37 
V.  The  First  Book  About  the  Last 

Things 47 

VI.  So  General  They  Become  Par- 
ticular      53 

VII.  Illustrating  the  Ancient  Art 

OF  Personal  Letter- Writing    62 
VIII.  The  First  Volume  of  an  Inter- 
rupted Series 75 

IX.  Why  They  Were  Called  Names    83 
X.  Native  Sons  Using  Exclusively 

A  Foreign  Tongue 87 

XL  Map-Making  which  Was  Unin- 
tentional      94 

XII.  When  Charity  Began  at  Home.     98 

XIII.  One  Conference  that    Regis- 

tered A  Decision 102 

XIV.  Strange  Travelers  Venturing 

ON  New  Trails 107 


4  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XV.  Fallen  Heralds  Who   Lie    in 

Foreign  Lands 124 

XVI.  The  Attribute  of  Everlasting 

AS  Applied  to  Books 131 

XVII.  The  Highest  Expression  of  the 

Christian  Life 140 

XVIII.  The    Proposition    as    It    Now 

Stands 149 


CHAPTER  I 

WHAT  IS  THE  GREATEST 
ACHIEVEMENT? 

If  you  were  asked  to  name  the  great- 
est achievement  of  all  the  long  Christian 
centuries,  what  would  you  be  most  likely 
to  suggest? 

These  twenty  Christian  centuries  will 
be  ever  memorable  as  marking  man's  in- 
creasing mastery  over  the  forces  of  the 
natural  world.  The  partial  liberation  of 
the  mind  of  man  has  resulted  in  eras  of 
inventions  and  in  epochs  of  discoveries. 
And  in  a  world  of  majestic  wonders,  who 
shall  name  the  most  glorious  single  achieve- 
ment of  all  the  Christian  centuries? 

The  Christian  centuries  have  been  par- 
ticularly the  centuries  of  discovery.  There 
are  no  longer  many  unknown  lands. 
Long-shut  doors  are  now  opened  into  all 
the  world.  Great  freedom  of  travel 
tends  to  make  the  people  of  the  planet 
at  home  anywhere.  The  tides  of  immi- 
gration are  just  setting  in.  People  from 
almost    everywhere    are    following    freely 


6  NEW  THOUGHTS 

the  fortunes  of  trade  and  the  favors  of 
developing  industries.  A  higher  power 
than  the  concert  of  nations  is  making  for 
the  open-door  poHcy  of  the  whole  world. 
And  that  power  will  eventually  set  an 
open  door  into  all  nations — a  door  which 
no  man  can  shut. 

Then  these  are  the  centuries  of  the  in- 
numerable inventions  which  to-day  lighten 
the  loads  too  long  borne  in  exhausting 
weariness  by  the  beings  who  were  made 
in  the  image  of  the  divine.  The  short- 
ened hours  of  toil  afford  added  hours  of 
leisure  for  the  studied  pursuit  of  culture 
and  learning,  and  make  for  the  ameliora- 
tion of  the  untoward  social  conditions 
of  mankind.  These  lessened  hours  of 
fatiguing  labor  are  not  the  least  among 
the  manifest  mercies  which  have  come 
into  the  world  through  the  inventive 
genius  of  man's  free  spirit. 

And  yet  the  greatest  achievement  of 
the  Christian  centuries  is  not  found  in 
the  world  of  art  or  science,  nor  in  the 
realm  of  discovery  or  invention.  The 
greatest  achievement  of  the  Christian 
centuries  is  the  Bible.    Of  the  making  of 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  7 

books  there  is  no  end;  but  among  all 
the  myriads  of  books  there  is  this  one 
book  which  is  above  every  book.  "Bring 
me  the  book!"  the  man  of  letters  ex- 
claimed; and  the  attendants  asked  him, 
"\ATiat  book?"  And  he  replied,  "There  is 
but  one  book!"  In  that  saying  the  man 
of  letters  expressed  the  true  judgment 
of  mankind. 

The  Bible  is  the  literature  of  power. 
A  youth  gone  wrong  found  his  mother's 
copy  of  the  Bible  opened  upon  a  bench 
in  the  garden,  and  read,  "Put  ye  on  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  make  not  pro- 
vision for  the  flesh,  to  fulfill  the  lusts 
thereof";  and  this  youth,  wonderfully  re- 
deemed by  that  single,  searching,  con- 
victing word  of  God,  devoted  his  life  to 
the  work  of  the  Lord,  became  the  mighti- 
est Christian  thinker  of  his  day,  and, 
after  the  lapse  of  fifteen  hundred  years, 
still  holds  the  theological  thinking  of  the 
world  in  the  grasp  of  his  powerful  hand. 

The  Bible  is  the  literature  of  power. 
A  German  monk  read  the  phrase,  "The 
just  shall  live  by  faith,"  and,  transformed 
by  that  living  word  of  God,  he  found  a 


8  NEW  THOUGHTS 

better  way  of  access  to  the  Father  of 
us  all,  and  through  the  fuller  revelation 
of  heavenly  grace,  this  monk  burst  asun- 
der the  fettering  bonds  which  bound  men 
in  slavish  fashion  to  lifeless  forms  of 
worship,  and,  further,  that  wonder  word 
of  illumination  concerning  justifying  faith 
made  radiant  a  world  which  was  lying  in 
deep  spiritual  darkness,  and  ushered  in  a 
new  birth  of  freedom  for  the  moral  and 
intellectual  realms. 

The  Bible  is  the  literature  of  power. 
An  English  scholar  sat  in  a  wayside 
chapel,  listening  as  an  untutored  man 
laboriously  read  Luther's  preface  to  the 
Romans;  and  suddenly  he  heard  those 
marvelous  words,  "Therefore  being  justi- 
fied by  faith,  we  have  peace  with  God 
through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  And  as 
this  English  scholar  heard  these  gracious 
words  of  Christian  assurance  he  felt  his 
heart  grow  strangely  warm,  and  the  peace 
of  God  which  passes  all  understanding 
came  to  abide  in  his  life;  and  out  from 
that  humble  chapel  in  which  an  almost 
illiterate  man  was  poorly  reading  some 
great  passages  from  the  living  Word  of 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  9 

God,  this  school  man,  newly  born,  went 
into  the  spiritual  leadership  of  the  Church 
of  God. 

The  influence  of  the  Bible  upon  the 
abiding  literature  of  the  world  is  in- 
calculable. What  literary  desolations 
would  be  wrought  by  removing  from  all 
libraries  the  other  books  whose  writing 
has  been  inspired  by  the  Bible!  The 
mark  of  the  Bible  is  seen  in  the  legisla- 
tion of  the  most  advanced  peoples  in  the 
world.  In  music  and  in  art,  the  greatest 
sources  of  suggestive  power  are  the  chal- 
lenging phrases  found  in  the  Word,  of 
God.  The  Bible  is  the  book  of  the  brother- 
hood of  man,  and  the  fountainhead  of 
all  true  democracies.  The  Bible  is  not 
only  the  inspiration  for  larger  liberties, 
but  its  presence  and  study  in  a  nation 
is  a  guarantee  of  continued  freedom. 
"The  Bible  is  the  sheet  anchor  of  Amer- 
ican liberties"  still  stands  as  the  judg- 
ment of  America's  foremost  warrior  states- 
man. 

A  ruling  monarch  from  a  distant  land 
had  come  to  England.  He  was  shown 
the    places    of    historic    interest    in    old 


10  NEW  THOUGHTS 

London.  He  toured  rural  England  and 
later  journeyed  to  the  seats  of  learning 
as  well  as  to  the  places  of  power.  He 
saw  the  crown  jewels  of  that  realm  upon 
whose  imperial  sway  the  sun  never  sets, 
and  later  he  looked  upon  the  grand  fleet 
of  that  proud  mistress  of  the  seas.  And 
then  he  was  brought  into  the  presence  of 
her  gracious  Majesty  Queen  Victoria. 
All  that  the  visiting  ruler  had  seen  of 
pomp  and  splendor  had  produced  a  pro- 
found impression  upon  his  mind,  and 
now,  in  the  presence  of  the  crowned  head 
of  so  vast  an  empire,  he  asks  the  queen 
to  tell  him  the  secret  of  England's  great- 
ness. And  taking  a  copy  of  the  Bible 
in  her  hand,  the  Christian  sovereign  of 
the  world's  greatest  empire  said:  "The 
Bible  is  the  secret  of  England's  great- 
ness." 

Saint  Paul's  Cathedral  contains  many 
monuments,  but  among  all  the  memorials 
chiseled  in  stone  or  painted  upon  canvas 
there  is  no  monument  erected  to  the 
genius  who  designed  the  Cathedral.  There 
is,  however,  an  inscription;  but  that  in- 
scription is  quite  enough,  for  it  reads:   *Tf 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  11 

you    seek    his     monument,   look    around 

you." 

There  are  no  monuments  erected  to 
the  Bible.  However,  there  are  innumer- 
able memorials  which  are  scattered  widely 
over  both  hemispheres — memorials  which 
have  been  occasioned  by  the  Bible.  Yon- 
der monastery  upon  a  lonely  mountain 
in  the  desert  lands  of  Arabia  will  be 
remembered  forever  as  the  place  where  an 
ancient  manuscript  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment was  found.  A  library  is  justly 
famous  because  closely  guarded  within  its 
protecting  vaults  is  a  partial  copy  of 
the  first  books  in  the  Christian  Scriptures. 
Over  the  seas  there  is  a  room  to  be  known 
all  down  the  ages,  because  a  few  men 
met  for  a  brief  time  within  its  inclosures 
to  work  upon  the  translation  of  the 
ancient  words  of  the  Bible  into  modern 
speech.  But  there  are  no  monuments 
which  have  been  erected  to  the  Bible 
itself.  Like  the  fabled  one  of  old,  every 
bit  this  Book  may  have  touched  has  be- 
come beautiful  and  memorable  forever. 
And  yet  even  more  like  the  One  of  whom 
it   speaks,   the   Bible  has   caused   monu- 


12  NEW  THOUGHTS 

ments  to  be  erected  to  people  and  to 
places  while  apparently  forgetful  of  it- 
self. 

If  you  seek  a  monument  to  the  Bible, 
look  around  you.  A  careful  investigation 
of  contemporaneous  history  in  contrast 
with  the  world  into  which  the  apostles 
were  sent  will  reveal  monuments  to  the 
Bible  so  numerous  that  no  man  can  count 
them.  For  to  the  earnest  student  of  the 
progressive  history  of  the  Christian  cen- 
turies mighty  monuments  to  the  Bible 
will  appear  in  changed  customs,  in  puri- 
fied languages,  in  humanized  legislation, 
in  refined  manners,  in  ennobled  art,  in 
developing  sciences,  in  growing  democ- 
racies, in  shared  riches,  in  disseminated 
knowledge,  in  multiplied  freedoms,  in  en- 
larged liberties,  in  increasing  good,  in 
decimated  evils,  in  renewed  peoples,  in 
uplifted  races,  and  in  the  countless  mul- 
titudes of  redeemed  souls  to  whom  the 
Word  of  God  brought  life  and  light. 

Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone,  but 
by  every  word  which  proceedeth  out  of  the 
mouth  of  God  (Matt.  4.  4). 

The  word  of  God  is  living,  and  active, 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  13 

and  sharper  than  any  two-edged  sword, 
and  piercing  even  to  the  dividing  of 
soul  and  spirit,  of  both  joints  and  mar- 
row, and  quick  to  discern  the  thoughts 
and  the  intents  of  the  heart  (Heb.  4. 
12). 

Every  scripture  inspired  of  God  is 
also  profitable  for  teaching,  for  reproof, 
for  correction,  for  instruction  which  is  in 
righteousness:  that  the  man  of  God  may 
be  complete,  furnished  completely  unto 
every  good  work  (2  Tim.  3.  16,  17). 

Seeing  ye  have  purified  your  souls  in 
your  obedience  to  the  truth  unto  un- 
feigned love  of  the  brethren,  love  one 
another  from  the  heart  fervently:  having 
been  begotten  again,  not  of  corruptible 
seed,  but  of  incorruptible,  through  the 
word  of  God,  which  liveth  and  abideth. 
For  all  flesh  is  as  grass,  and  all  the  glory 
thereof  as  the  flower  of  grass.  The  grass 
withereth,  and  the  flower  falleth:  but  the 
word  of  the  Lord  abideth  for  ever  (1  Peter 
1.  2*2-25). 

The  Bible  is  the  greatest  achievement 
of  the  Christian  centuries,  as  well  as  the 
most   priceless   heritage   of  all   mankind. 


U  NEW  THOUGHTS 

And  they  to  whom  the  world  is  indebted 
for  this  priceless  literary  treasure  are  the 
real  benefactors  of  the  races  of  men. 

Who,  then,  are  the  men  to  whom  the 
world  owes  the  fact  that  there  is  such  a 
book  as  the  Bible? 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  15 


CHAPTER  II 

IT  WAS  THEIRS:  IT  IS  NOW  OURS 

It  is  exceedingly  difficult  for  us  to 
imagine  a  time  when  there  was  no  Bible. 
With  what  pitying  eyes  we  read,  in  an 
early  history,  that  there  was  no  open 
vision  in  those  days.  For  long,  lonesome 
centuries  men  saw  through  a  glass  darkly. 

And  it  is  even  more  difficult  for  us  to 
conceive  the  almost  incidental  way  in 
which  many  of  the  books  of  the  Bible 
appear  to  have  been  written.  Such 
fascinating  stories  are  treasured  in  the 
traditions  of  the  church  as  to  the  manner 
of  the  writing  of  some  of  the  books  in 
the  New  Testament.  WTiat  a  wonderful 
enrichment  would  come  to  our  general 
knowledge  if  we  could  fully  recover  the 
circumstances  concerning  the  writing  of 
all  the  books  in  the  Bible! 

The  two  general  divisions  of  the  Bible 
are  the  Old  and  the  New  Testaments, 
comprising  sixty-six  books,  with  numer- 
ous authors  and  many  centuries  covered 


16  NEW  THOUGHTS 

in  their  writing.  And  yet  the  Bible  is 
really  one  book.  It  is  a  book  with  one 
theme — the  theme  of  redeeming  love.  It 
is  a  book  built  upon  one  thread — a  scarlet 
thread,  whose  red  strands  entwine  the 
whole  revelation  of  the  bleeding  heart  of 
God  for  the  lost  and  sinning  sons  of  men. 

We  speak  of  the  Word  of  God  as  our 
Bible.  But  in  what  sense  is  this  book  of 
God  our  Bible? 

The  most  casual  American,  in  reading 
the  Word  of  God,  discovers  quickly  that 
the  Bible  is  a  foreign  book.  Its  scenes 
are  all  laid  in  distant  lands  and  among 
alien  peoples.  Its  figures  of  speech  are 
so  strange  that  entire  libraries  of  books 
are  needed  for  their  proper  understanding. 
Its  modes  of  thought  are  at  variance  with 
the  accepted  rules  of  the  modem  mind. 
Its  language  is  so  foreign  that  it  is  diffi- 
cult at  times  to  fully  apprehend  its  deeper 
meaning.  Its  imagery  reflects  a  world 
totally  different  from  the  one  in  which 
we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being. 
Its  customs  and  ceremonies  are  altogether 
outside  the  common  range  of  experiences 
of  the  native-born  in  our  race.     Its  chief 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  17 

characters  bear  names  with  which  we  are 
not  naturally  familiar.  Its  story  largely 
concerns  an  almost  forgotten  period  in 
the  world's  history.  The  message  of  the 
Bible,  however  welcome  it  may  be  to  us, 
comes  mediated  by  a  race  other  than  our 
own.  For  the  Bible  is  an  Oriental  book. 
The  authors  of  the  books  of  the  Bible 
were  for  the  most  part  Asiatics.  The 
holy  men  of  old  who  spake  and  wrote  as 
they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
were  mostly  members  of  the  Semitic  race. 

And  yet  we  may  in  all  sincerity  speak 
of  the  Word  of  God  as  our  Bible.  But 
in  what  sense  is  this  book  of  God  our 
Bible?  Evidently,  not  in  the  sense  that 
w^e  discovered  it  ourselves,  and  certainly 
not  in  the  sense  that  we  wrote  it  our- 
selves. The  Bible  is  our  Bible  simply 
because  we  accepted  it  as  a  most  gracious 
gift  from  the  people  of  another  race.  To 
what  persons  in  particular  are  we  thus 
in  everlasting  debt  for  this  great  gift  of 
the  most  precious  literary  heritage  of  all 
the  ages.^ 

The  Bible  has  so  long  been  in  the 
possession  of  our  people  that  it  is  well- 


18  NEW  THOUGHTS 

nigh  impossible  to  fancy  a  time  when  our 
race  was  outside  the  pale  of  revelation 
and  without  the  Word  of  God.  While 
the  Bible  had  its  rise  among  the  Orientals, 
yet  to-day  its  greatest  triumphs  are  in 
the  Occidental  lands.  Although  the  au- 
thors of  the  books  of  the  Bible  were 
mostly  Asiatics,  nevertheless  to-day  this 
book  of  the  revealed  will  of  God  holds  its 
completest  sway  over  the  minds  of  the 
American  and  the  European.  The  Bible 
has  so  fully  become  the  possession  of  the 
highly  favored  peoples  of  these  evan- 
gelized lands  that  it  is  now  quite  incon- 
ceivable to  suppose  the  time  when  our 
people  were  without  the  Bible  altogether. 

The  Bible  was  first  brought  to  the 
ancestors  of  our  race  by  foreign  mis- 
sionaries. In  recounting  the  modem  fruits 
of  foreign  missions,  it  is  now  the  quite 
common  practice  to  look  to  lands  other 
than  our  own,  apparently  all  unmindful 
of  the  fact  that  the  largest  results  of 
missionary  labor  are  to  be  seen  in  all 
that  is  best  in  Europe  and  America.  It 
was  so  long  ago  that  the  foreign  mission- 
aries first  brought  the  Bible  to  our  race 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  19 

that  we  have  almost  altogether  forgotten 
that  we  ourselves  are  the  descendants  of 
the  converts  of  foreign  missionaries.  And 
if  it  had  not  been  for  the  work  of  foreign 
missionaries  the  Bible  would  never  have 
become  the  common  possession  of  the 
people  of  our  race. 

And  yet,  wonderful  as  is  the  giviog 
of  the  Bible  to  the  people  of  our  race, 
it  is  one  of  the  least  of  the  marvelous 
achievements  of  the  foreign  missionary 
enterprise.  So  far  as  we  are  concerned 
the  bringing  of  the  Bible  to  us  has  been 
of  inestimable  value.  Even  so  there  have 
been  many  other  events  of  equal  impor- 
tance in  the  illustrious  history  of  foreign 
missions. 

The  missionaries  have  largely  mastered 
the  languages  of  the  peoples  of  the  planet. 
At  almost  infinite  pains  these  men  of  God 
have  listened  to  the  well-nigh  unintelligible 
jargons  of  the  various  unlettered  races; 
and  then,  after  mastering  their  rude  ways 
of  unlettered  and  unwritten  speech,  have 
given  both  a  language  and  a  literature  to 
m^Tiads  of  men.  In  this  one  way  alone 
the  missionaries  have  been  of  incalculable 


20  NEW  THOUGHTS 

benefit  to  the  orthographies  of  the  world. 
That  the  missionaries  have  done  their 
Hterary  work  well  may  be  inferred  from 
the  fact  that  to-day  all  the  reading  people 
on  the  planet  have  the  Word  of  God  in 
the  tongue  wherein  they  were  born.  The 
translation  of  the  Scriptures  alone  into  so 
many  languages  is  a  task  so  monumental 
as  to  justify  all  the  labors  of  all  the  mis- 
sionaries from  the  days  of  the  apostles 
until  now. 

Then,  too,  the  circulation  of  the  Scrip- 
tures in  all  lands  has  been  carried  on  so 
industriously  and  against  such  bitter  oppo- 
sition as  to  merit  the  approbation  and  to 
receive  the  praise  of  the  true  lovers  of 
real  heroism  in  all  the  world.  And,  marvel 
of  marvels!  the  very  church  which  was 
set  as  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth 
has  at  times  forbidden  the  distribution  of 
the  Word  of  God  in  the  language  of  the 
people.  The  foes  within  the  church  have 
always  been  far  mightier  than  the  forces 
without  the  church.  The  foreign  mis- 
sionary has  often  found  that  his  worst 
enemies  are  they  of  his  own  ecclesiastical 
household.      Even    so,    the    missionaries 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  21 

triumphed  still;  and  the  circulation  of  the 
Scriptures  in  every  land  attests  the  fidel- 
ity and  the  heroism  of  these  men  of  God 
who  loved  not  their  hves  unto  death. 
With  ennobling  enthusiasm  they  carried 
abroad  the  Word  of  eternal  life.  Many 
fires  could  not  quench  their  devotion: 
neither  could  the  floods  drown  it. 

The  work  of  the  missionaries  has  made 
the  peoples  of  the  world  accessible  to  one 
another.  ^Vhen  the  gospel  has  once  come 
into  its  rightful  place  in  the  life,  a  person 
is  no  longer  willing  to  live  in  isolation. 
Mankind  is  so  made  that  nationalities  will 
not  always  be  content  to  dwell  in  exclusive 
provincialisms.  Some  day  all  that  nar- 
rows and  contracts  will  be  finally  done 
aw^ay.  Racial  prejudices  will  vanish  for- 
ever in  the  presence  of  the  fuller  light 
which  comes  from  a  better  knowledge  of 
one  another.  And  in  this  vital  way  the 
missionaries  are  fast  furthering  the  fed- 
eration of  the  world. 

Then,  too.  Christian  missions  has  for- 
warded the  rapidly  forming  civilizations  in 
mission  lands.  The  proclamation  of  the 
gospel  message  awakens  always  a  desire 


22  NEW  THOUGHTS 

for  better  things.  Institutions  for  human 
advancement  follow  ever  in  the  wake  of 
the  missionaries  of  the  Christ.  And, 
through  it  all,  belated  peoples  begin  to 
form  nationalities;  and  these  nationalities, 
as  though  driven  by  an  irresistible  power, 
drift  all  unconsciously  toward  democ- 
racies; and  the  day  is  not  far  distant  when 
all  kingly  governors  of  the  world  will  be 
of  the  people's  own  choosing. 

Far  greater  even  yet  are  the  vast  social 
reconstructions  which  are  being  wrought 
by  the  missionary's  message  in  every  land. 
Children  the  world  around  are  coming  into 
a  new  heritage  through  the  discovery  of 
the  thought  of  God  for  the  childhood  of 
all  the  races  of  men.  The  emancipation 
of  woman  from  the  age-long  burdens 
which  have  borne  her  down  is  most  mar- 
velous indeed.  And  now  the  serious 
attempt  to  meet  the  total  social  needs  of 
all  men  is  more  wonderful  still.  It  is 
this  everlasting,  regenerating,  vitalizing 
gospel  which  meets  every  need  that  the 
missionaries  have  carried  into  all  lands. 

But  not  one  of  these  represents,  nor 
even  all  of  them,  unprecedented  achieve- 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  23 

ments  though  they  are,  represent  the 
greatest  accompHshment  of  the  mission- 
ary enterprise.  For  the  most  extraordinary 
achievement  of  the  entire  missionary  enter- 
prise is  the  Bible  itself.  This  is  the  fact 
which  stands  incontestable:  apostolic  mis- 
sions did  not  grow  out  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, but  the  New  Testament  rather, 
grew  out  of  the  active  labors  of  the  first 
missionaries  among  the  apostles. 

One  of  the  ancients  was  wont  to  say 
that  every  address  should  begin  with  an 
incontrovertible  proposition.  This  chap- 
ter closes  with  an  incontrovertible  propo- 
sition: If  it  had  not  been  for  the  mission- 
ary enterprise,  the  world  would  never 
have  had  the  Bible  at  all. 


24  NEW  THOUGHTS 

CHAPTER  III 

A  SIMPLE  QUESTION  OF  AUTHORS 

Who  wrote  the  books  which  comprise 
the  New  Testament? 

Of  the  twenty-seven  books  in  the  New 
Testament,  seven  do  not  contain  in  them- 
selves the  names  of  their  own  authors. 
These  seven  books,  although  they  are  ever 
so  few  among  so  many,  comprise  three 
fifths  of  the  entire  Christian  Scriptures, 
for  they  are  the  four  Gospels,  the  Acts, 
the  Hebrews,  and  First  John.  Then  there 
are  two  other  smaller  books  which  leave 
the  name  of  the  writer  to  be  inferred 
from  a  descriptive  phrase. 

What  could  have  been  the  motive  which 
impelled  the  writers  of  the  four  Gospels 
to  leave  out  of  their  books  any  mention 
of  their  names  as  authors?  Doubtless 
their  standing  and  recognition  among 
Christian  believers  was  so  high  that  it 
was  entirely  unnecessary  for  them  to 
appeal  to  their  authority.  It  was  far 
otherwise    with    the    apostle    Paul.      He 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  25 

always  was  straitened  under  the  stern 
necessity  of  proving  that  he  too  had  the 
calling  of  an  apostle. 

It  is  most  apparent  that  the  men  who 
wrote  the  Gospels  were  particularly  eager 
that  all  the  readers  of  their  message  should 
see  Jesus  only.  They  gave  themselves  to 
their  labor  of  love  with  such  holy  abandon 
that  their  own  names  as  authors  might 
have  been  completely  lost.  If  the  world 
should  come  to  know  Jesus  as  Lord,  they 
were  evidently  quite  willing  themselves  to 
be  entirely  forgotten. 

Fortunately  for  us,  the  first  genera- 
tions of  the  Christian  converts  have  pre- 
served the  names  of  the  authors  of  the 
Gospels,  and  because  of  the  testimony  of 
those  early  believers  we  know  that  the 
Gospels  were  wTitten  by  the  men  whose 
names  they  now  bear.  Therefore  to  the 
end  of  the  ages  the  lovers  of  the  Lord 
will  speak  of  the  good  tidings  as  the 
Gospels  according  to  Matthew,  and  Mark, 
and  Luke,  and  John. 

The  third  Gospel  and  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  are  from  the  same  pen,  and 
Luke  is  their  author. 


26  NEW  THOUGHTS 

In  the  epistles  which  bear  his  name 
Paul's  name  appears  alone  in  Romans, 
Ephesians,  and  in  the  three  Pastoral 
Epistles  to  Timothy  and  to  Titus.  In 
First  Corinthians  Paul  associates  the  name 
of  Sosthenes  with  his  own  name.  In 
Second  Corinthians,  Philippians,  Colos- 
sians,  and  Philemon,  Paul  includes  the 
name  of  Timothy  along  with  himself  in 
the  introductory  paragraphs.  In  Gala- 
tians,  Paul  names  "all  the  brethren  that 
are  with  me,"  together  with  himself, 
while  in  the  two  Epistles  to  the  Thes- 
salonians  appear  the  names  of  Silvanus  and 
Timothy  in  company  with  the  name  of 
Paul.  Notwithstanding  this  array  of 
names,  these  epistles  are  all  known  as 
the  letters  of  the  apostle  Paul.  How, 
then,  does  it  occur  that  these  names 
are  to  be  found  in  the  introductions  to  the 
epistles? 

The  names  of  Sosthenes,  and  Timothy, 
and  Silvanus,  and  "all  the  brethren"  ap- 
pear in  the  introductory  verses  just  as 
the  names  of  many  friends  are  found  in 
the  salutations.  What  a  charming  pic- 
ture of  the  utter  Christian  simplicity  that 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  27 

prevailed  in  the  apostolic  church!  There 
is  the  completest  freedom  from  arrogant 
ecclesiasticism.  Think  of  the  greatest 
apostle  freely  associating  with  his  own 
far-sounding  name  the  name  of  so  youthful 
a  disciple  as  Timothy! 

James,  the  son  of  Joseph  and  Mary, 
and  a  younger  brother  of  our  Lord,  is  the 
author  of  the  epistle  which  bears  his 
name. 

Jude,  the  brother  of  James — as  though 
that  were  honor  enough ! — wrote  the  Epis- 
tle of  Jude. 

Peter  is  the  author  of  the  two  epistles 
which  carry  his  name.  The  title  to 
Second  Peter  in  some  ancient  manuscripts 
bears  the  name  of  Symeon.  There  is 
necessity  for  the  exercise  of  great  restraint 
in  thinking  of  all  that  may  lie  behind  in 
the  author's  mind  when  Peter  thus  late 
uses  his  old-time  and  childhood  name. 

John  is  commonly  recognized  as  the 
author  of  the  three  epistles  and  the  book 
of  Revelation. 

This  leaves  the  authorship  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  still  to  be  determined. 

In  the  King  James  Version  of  the  Holy 


28  NEW  THOUGHTS 

Scriptures  the  title  to  the  Hebrews  reads: 
"The  Epistle  of  Paul  the  Apostle  to  the 
Hebrews,"  while  in  all  the  modern  ver- 
sions of  the  New  Testament  the  title 
reads  simply,  "The  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews." Thus  Hebrews  stands  alone  as 
the  one  book  in  the  New  Testament  about 
whose  authorship  there  is  serious  differ- 
ence of  opinion. 

All  thoughtful  readers  are  impressed 
with  the  marked  difference  of  style  be- 
tween the  opening  verses  of  Paul's  other 
epistles,  and  the  beginning  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews.  In  the  thirteen  epistles 
from  Romans  to  Philemon,  the  first  word 
invariably  is  the  apostle's  own  name. 
The  introductory  sentences  in  nine  of  the 
Pauline  epistles  follow  the  name  of  Paul 
with  the  strongest  possible  affirmation  of 
his  apostleship.  A  comparison  of  these 
opening  verses  is  most  instructive: 

Paul,  .  .  .  called  to  be  an  apostle  (Rom. 

1.1). 

Paul,  called  to  be  an  apostle  of  Jesus 
Christ  through  the  will  of  God  (1  Cor.  1.1). 

Paul,  an  apostle  of  Christ  Jesus  through 
the  will  of  God  (2  Cor.  1.  1). 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  29 

Paul,  an  apostle,  not  from  men,  neither 
through  man,  but  through  Jesus  Christ 
and  God  the  Father  (Gal.  1.  1). 

Paul,  an  apostle  of  Christ  Jesus  through 
the  will  of  God  (Eph.  1.  1). 

Paul,  an  apostle  of  Christ  Jesus  through 
the  will  of  God  (Col.  1.  1). 

Paul,  an  apostle  of  Christ  Jesus  accord- 
ing to  the  commandment  of  God  our 
Saviour  and  Christ  Jesus  our  hope   (1  Tim. 

1. 1). 

Paul,  an  apostle  of  Christ  Jesus  through 
the  will  of  God  (2  Tim.  1.  1). 

Paul,  ...  an  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ 
(Titus  1.  1). 

God,  having  of  old  time,  spoken  unto 
the  fathers  in  the  prophets  by  divers 
portions  and  in  divers  manners,  hath  at 
the  end  of  these  days  spoken  to  us  in 
his  Son  (Heb.  1.  1). 

Something  more  than  the  mere  omission 
of  the  author's  name  led  studious  men 
long  ago  to  question  the  Pauline  author- 
ship of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  The 
style  throughout  is  very  different  from 
the  other  acknowledged  letters  of  the 
apostle  Paul. 


30  NEW  THOUGHTS 

The  question  of  style,  however,  in  the 
Hterary  criticism  of  the  Bible  is  liable  to 
overvaluation.  A  certain  boy  away  from 
home  at  college  wrote  regularly  to  his 
mother.  The  mother  received  at  least 
two  letters  every  week  from  her  son. 
Then  one  day  there  came  to  the  mother 
a  large  envelope  which  contained  the  copy 
of  a  contest  oration  written  by  her  boy. 
The  oration  was  not  the  least  bit  like  his 
letters  in  style;  and  the  mother  sat  pon- 
dering the  rhetorical  phrases,  and  the 
balanced  periods,  and  the  unusual  words — 
and  long  words  at  that — and  with  a  look 
of  deep  wonder  on  her  face,  asked  her 
daughter,  "Where  do  you  suppose  Willie 
got  all  these  big  words?"  And  as  with 
labored  effort  the  mother  finally  finished 
the  reading  of  her  son's  oration,  she  said, 
questioningly,  "Do  you  really  suppose 
Willie  wrote  all  this?"  The  mother  has 
long  been  with  her  Lord  in  the  land  of 
tearless  joy,  and  I  still  aflSrm  with  all  my 
heart  that  I  did  write  the  oration  myseK 
— every  word  of  it! 

However,  the  entire  cast  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  is  in  a  style  totally  differ- 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  31 

ent  from  the  manner  of  Paul's  ordinary 
writing  in  the  thirteen  epistles  which  bear 
his  name. 

In  the  eastern  church,  with  its  educa- 
tional center  in  Alexandria,  there  was  the 
common  belief  that  the  church  was  in- 
debted to  the  apostle  Paul  for  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews.  The  absence  of  his 
name,  however,  called  for  an  explanation. 
And  Pantaenus,  at  the  middle  of  the 
second  century,  accounts  for  the  absence 
of  the  apostle's  name  on  the  ground  of 
modesty,  considering  that  the  Lord  Jesus 
had  been  sent  as  the  apostle  to  the  He- 
brews. Clement  of  Alexandria,  writing 
near  the  close  of  the  second  century,  sup- 
poses that  Paul  omitted  his  name  because 
the  Hebrews  were  prejudiced  against  him. 
But  Clement  goes  a  step  further,  and 
really  questions  the  Pauline  authorship  of 
the  epistle  from  the  point  of  view  of  its 
style,  suggesting  that  Paul  might  have 
written  the  epistle  in  Hebrew,  and  that 
Luke  translated  it  into  Greek. 

Origen  was  perhaps  the  greatest  scholar 
in  the  early  days  of  the  eastern  church. 
This  great   scholar   notes   the   peculiarly 


32  NEW  THOUGHTS 

Pauline  cast  of  thought  in  Hebrews,  but 
the  language  of  the  book  forces  him  to 
the  conclusion  that  it  must  have  been 
written  by  some  one  else.  Nevertheless, 
Origen  justifies  any  church  in  receiving 
Hebrews  as  from  the  apostle  Paul,  because 
the  thought  of  the  epistle  is  so  thor- 
oughly and  so  conclusively  Pauline. 

A  different  view  of  the  authorship  of 
the  Hebrews  was  held  in  the  leading  cen- 
ters of  the  western  chiu'ch  in  Rome  and 
Carthage.  The  church  of  North  Africa 
was  in  a  flourishing  condition.  Some  of 
the  ablest  apologists  and  theologians  of 
the  whole  Christian  era  were  members  of 
that  church.  TertuUian  especially  ranks 
high  on  the  honor  roll  of  the  early  church 
fathers.  While  the  testimony  of  the 
western  church  is  wholly  against  the 
Pauline  authorship,  yet  it  is  only  upon 
the  statement  of  TertuUian  that  Hebrews 
is  ascribed  to  Barnabas.  This  capable 
leader  of  the  Christian  forces  in  North 
Africa  speaks  of  Barnabas  as  "a  man  of 
such  authority  that  Paul  ranks  him  with 
himself." 

After  all,  who  wrote  Hebrews? 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  33 

It  must  appear  as  purest  presumption 
at  so  late  a  day  to  attempt  to  find  out 
something  upon  which  the  Christian  schol- 
ars of  the  second  century  were  unable  to 
agree.  Origen  expressed  the  opinion  that 
God  alone  knew  who  wrote  Hebrews. 
And  upon  that  statement  of  fact  there 
will  be  no  difference  of  opinion  what- 
ever. 

It  is  a  matter  of  genuine  interest,  how- 
ever, to  note  that  the  students  of  Hebrews 
are  quite  generally  agreed  upon  these  six 
conclusions : 

1.  The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  is  not 
a  Greek  translation  of  a  Hebrew  original. 
The  superfineness  of  the  literary  finish 
precludes  the  possibility  of  the  epistle 
being  a  mere  translation. 

2.  The  author  of  the  epistle  is  a  Jew. 
This  is  determined  not  alone  by  the  most 
intimate  familiarity  with  Jewish  history 
and  literature,  but  by  the  entire  back- 
ground of  the  argument  and  structure  of 
the  epistle. 

3.  The  author,  while  a  Jew,  belonged  to 
that  influential  body  of  Jews  who  were 
tinged    with    Greek    modes    of    thought. 


34  NEW  THOUGHTS 

Thus   the   author   was   a   Jew   from   the 
Gentile  world. 

4.  The  author  was  not  an  apostle,  for 
he  states  clearly  that  the  message  of 
salvation  was  confirmed  unto  him  along 
with  others  by  the  testimony  of  the  men 
who  had  themselves  heard  the  Lord  Jesus. 

5.  The  author  manifests  great  familiar- 
ity with  the  ideas  of  Paul.  There  is  so 
much  similarity  between  the  ideas  in 
Hebrews  and  the  ideas  in  some  of  PauFs 
letters  that  Origen  rightly  characterizes 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  as  the  thoughts 
of  the  apostle  Paul. 

6.  The  author  is  skilled  in  Jewish  cere- 
monial practices.  No  other  book  in  the 
entire  New  Testament  makes  so  large  a 
use  of  the  laws  of  sacrifice  and  of  the 
part  of  the  priest  in  the  service  of  the 
temple. 

Now,  of  all  the  men  suggested  as  pos- 
sible authors  of  Hebrews  there  is  no  one 
who  more  completely  fulfills  these  reason- 
able expectations  than  does  Barnabas,  for 
Barnabas  was  a  Levite  who  lived  outside 
the  land  of  Palestine.  He  was  the  closest 
possible  companion  of  the  apostle  Paul  in 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  35 

those  controversial  days  when  the  PauUne 
ideas  were  given  their  most  forceful  ex- 
pression. And  Barnabas  heard  the  gospel 
message  from  others.  Besides  all  this, 
Barnabas  was  never  included  in  the  circle 
of  the  apostolate.  He  was  not  an  eye- 
witness of  His  majesty,  as  were  Peter  and 
the  rest.  We  may,  therefore,  reasonably 
conclude  that  the  assertion  of  Tertullian 
is  grounded  upon  very  substantial  evi- 
dence, and  that  Joseph — who  by  the 
apostles  was  surnamed  Barnabas,  a  Le- 
vite,  a  man  of  Cyprus  by  birth,  a  good 
man,  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  of  faith 
— is  the  probable  author  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews. 

^\Tiat,  then,  are  the  names  of  the  men 
who  wrote  the  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment? There  are  Matthew,  and  Mark,  and 
Luke,  and  John,  and  Paul,  and  Barnabas, 
and  Peter,  and  James,  and  Jude. 

^^^lere  did  these  writers  of  the  books 
of  the  New  Testament  labor?  We  call 
some  of  them  apostles,  and  by  that  word 
we  frequently  confuse  the  idea  that  in 
reality  they  were  simply  missionaries,  for 
a  further  analysis  of  the  record  of  their 


36  NEW  THOUGHTS 

fruitful  lives  shows  most  conclusively  that 
these  writers  were  all  missionaries.  Then 
every  book  in  the  New  Testament  was 
written  by  a  missionary. 

Now,  it  may  appear  as  begging  the 
question  to  make  such  a  sweeping 
claim  after  so  lately  proving  the  prob- 
ability that  the  missionary  Barnabas  is 
the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 
But  suppose  for  the  moment  that  Barnabas 
did  not  write  Hebrews.  Suppose  Hebrews 
to  have  been  written  by  any  one  of  the 
several  worthy  names  which  have  been 
championed  by  able  scholars  as  rightful 
claimants  to  the  authorship  of  Hebrews. 
What  then?  Simply  this:  of  all  the  out- 
standing suggested  authors  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  every  one  of  them  was 
a  missionary. 

And  so  the  record  still  stands:  every 
book  in  the  New  Testament  was  written 
by  a  missionary.  If  it  had  not  been  for 
the  missionary  enterprise,  the  world  would 
never  have  had  the  Bible  at  all. 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK     37 


CHAPTER  IV 

WHERE  THEY  ALREADY  HAD  BEEN 

Twelve  of  the  epistles  of  the  apostle 
Paul  are  addressed  either  to  individuals 
or  to  churches.  One  other  epistle  is 
directed  to  a  group  of  churches — the 
churches  in  Galatia.  In  the  order  in 
which  the  Pauline  letters  appear  in  the 
New  Testament,  the  first  nine  are  ad- 
dressed to  seven  Christian  communities. 
These  Christian  communities  are  located 
in  places  of  genuine  historic  interest. 

1.  In  the  early  days  of  the  Christian 
era  Rome  sat  upon  her  seven  hills,  the 
political  mistress  of  the  world.  Her  popu- 
lation ran  close  to  an  even  million  souls, 
and  included  a  rapidly  growing  Jewish 
contingent.  Rome  was  well  called  the 
epitome  of  the  world.  Her  citizens  repre- 
sented every  known  nationality,  and  every 
religion,  and  every  race.  Rome  was  the 
storehouse  of  all  that  was  valuable  or 
curious  in  the  empire,  the  center  of  polit- 
ical  and   intellectual   life.     People   from 


38  NEW  THOUGHTS 

every  part  of  the  known  world  jostled  one 
another  familiarly  in  her  crowded  streets. 

No  one  now  knows  who  first  proclaimed 
the  gospel  in  the  imperial  city,  and  laid 
the  foundation  for  that  spiritual  kingdom 
which  still  has  its  seat  upon  the  banks  of 
the  Tiber.  However,  there  were  so- 
journers from  Rome  in  Jerusalem  upon  the 
day  of  Pentecost.  It  may  be  assumed 
that  some  one  from  among  these  visitors 
to  the  city  of  David  might  have  been 
the  first  to  carry  the  good  news  of  a 
risen  Lord  to  the  Jewish  community  in 
the  city  of  Rome.  The  effect  of  the 
proclamation  of  the  gospel  message  was 
the  same  in  Rome  as  elsewhere  in  that 
ancient  world.  Riots  were  frequent.  These 
riots  became  so  serious  that  finally  the 
Christian  leaders  were  banished  from 
Rome  by  an  imperial  decree. 

2.  Corinth,  at  the  time  of  Paul's  first 
visit,  was  the  capital  city  of  the  Roman 
province  of  Achaia,  and  the  headquarters 
of  the  proconsul.  Corinth  was  a  city  of 
great  importance,  situated  on  a  narrow 
isthmus — "the  bridge  of  the  untiring  seas" 
— with   an  eastern  and   a  western   port. 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  39 

Thus  Corinth  was  a  maritime  city.  Sailors 
from  every  port  thronged  the  city's  har- 
bors, and  walked  the  city's  streets,  and 
partook  of  the  city's  life.  A  current 
proverb  for  abandoned  living  carries  with 
it  still  the  stigma  of  the  ill  of  the  place — 
"to  live  as  they  do  at  Corinth."  The 
low  moral  tone  of  the  city  is  reflected  in 
the  later  Christian  community.  Nowhere 
else  in  epistolary  literature  is  to  be  found 
another  such  record  of  loose  living  as  is 
pictured  in  the  epistles  to  the  Corinthians. 
The  Corinthian  church  was  founded  in 
turbid  waters.  Corinth  as  a  community 
was  well  characterized  as  possessing  loos- 
ened and  disintegrating  moral  fibers.  The 
people  were  given  over  to  lightness  in 
thought  and  in  speech.  And  yet  they  to 
whom  the  preaching  of  the  cross  at  first 
seemed  utter  foolishness  found  at  last 
the  power  of  God  unto  salvation. 

3.  Galatia  comprised  the  rich  country 
separated  from  the  Black  Sea  by  Bithynia, 
while  to  the  east  of  Galatia  lay  Pontus 
and  Cappadocia,  and  to  the  south  and 
west  was  Phrygia.  Galatia  was  mostly 
inhabited    by    the    Celts.      And    ancient 


40  NEW  THOUGHTS 

writers  describe  the  Celtic  race  as  pe- 
culiarly impressionable,  inquisitive,  quick 
of  apprehension,  and  eager.  They  were 
known  by  their  contemporaries  as  a  people 
of  fickle  disposition.  How  clearly  all  these 
racial  characteristics  are  portrayed  in 
Paul's  letter  to  the  churches  of  Galatia! 

4.  Ephesus  was  the  capital  of  the  Roman 
province  of  Asia,  and  one  of  the  three 
great  cities  of  the  eastern  Mediterranean 
lands.  The  city  owed  much  of  its  pre- 
eminence in  the  province  to  the  temple 
of  Diana,  the  greatest  and  the  most  in- 
fluential in  the  province  of  Asia.  And 
Ephesus  was  boastful  of  her  title  as 
warden  of  the  temple.  This  is  attested 
by  the  serious  riot  which  the  members  of 
the  silversmiths'  council  were  able  to 
arouse  because  the  acceptance  of  the 
gospel  made  heavy  inroads  into  the  pop- 
ular demand  for  the  images  of  the  goddess. 

5.  Philippi  is  of  special  interest  as  the 
first  place  to  be  evangelized  on  the  conti- 
nent of  Europe.  In  response  to  the  vision 
call  of  the  man  from  Macedonia,  Paul 
embarked  upon  this  special  tour  of  evan- 
gelization.    Two   incidents   emerge   from 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  41 

among  the  many  happenings  in  Philippi. 
The  one  relates  to  the  conversion  of  Lydia, 
whose  heart  the  Lord  opened  as  she  gave 
earnest  heed  to  the  word  of  eternal  life 
spoken  by  the  missionary  at  the  riverside, 
"where  prayer  was  wont  to  be  made." 
The  other  incident  has  to  do  with  the 
rescue  of  a  little  slave  girl  who  was  kept 
in  bondage  for  gain  by  her  masters,  be- 
cause of  some  precocious  power  of  divina- 
tion which  she  appears  to  have  possessed. 
The  first  friend  for  Jesus  in  this  new 
mission  at  Philippi  was  a  woman  of 
affairs,  and,  doubtless,  a  woman  of  wealth 
and  influence  as  well.  And  the  last 
friend  was  the  little  slave  girl;  for  imme- 
diately following  her  remarkable  trans- 
formation, when  her  masters  saw  that  the 
hope  of  their  gain  was  gone,  straightway 
they  laid  hold  on  Paul  and  Silas  and 
dragged  them  into  the  market  place  before 
the  rulers.  And  the  rulers  beat  them 
with  rods  and  cast  them  into  prison. 
But  at  midnight  Paul  and  Silas  prayed, 
and  sang  hymns  unto  God.  And  sud- 
denly there  was  a  great  earthquake,  and 
all  were  released.    And  the  jailor  brought 


42  NEW  THOUGHTS 

Paul  and  Silas  out  of  the  prison  and  took 
them  into  his  own  house,  and  the  magis- 
trates besought  them,  and  asked  them 
to  go  away  from  the  city.  And  when  Paul 
and  Silas  had  seen  the  Christian  brethren, 
they  comforted  them,  and  departed.  And 
yet  so  gracious  were  the  days  spent  in 
Philippi,  and  so  beautiful  were  the  lives 
of  the  Philippian  believers,  that  Paul 
thanked  God  upon  every  remembrance  of 
them !  Philippi  can  never  be  forgotten,  and 
the  epistle  Paul  wrote  to  the  Philippians 
is  rightly  considered  the  most  radiantly 
buoyantly  joyous  of  all  Paul's  letters. 

6.  Colossae  was  situated  on  the  river 
Lycus,  in  southwestern  Phrygia,  but  within 
the  Roman  proconsular  province  of  Asia. 
It  was  not  far  away  from  Laodicea  and 
Hierapolis.  Colossse  was  not  evangelized 
directly  by  the  apostle  Paul.  The  church 
in  Colossse  may  have  been  formed  by 
converts  who  were  won  by  the  preaching 
of  Paul  in  Ephesus.  Late  in  the  days  of 
his  first  imprisonment  at  Rome  we  find 
Paul  planning  a  journey  into  the  provinces 
of  Asia  Minor,  and  at  that  time  he  hoped 
to  visit  this  church  in  Colossse. 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  43 

7.  Thessalonica  was  the  scene  of  the 
missionary  labors  of  the  apostle  Paul 
following  his  enforced  departure  from 
Philippi.  Here  Paul  found  employment 
and  felt  at  home  with  the  tradespeople 
of  the  town.  His  testimony  in  the  syna- 
gogue upon  the  Sabbath  day  awoke  a 
favorable  response  among  many  people; 
and  yet,  once  again,  the  Jews,  being 
moved  with  jealousy,  took  unto  them  cer- 
tain vile  fellows  of  the  rabble,  and  gather- 
ing a  crowd  set  the  city  in  an  uproar. 
And  the  brethren  sent  away  Paul  and 
Silas  by  night.  And  the  church  at  Thes- 
salonica has  this  signal  honor — that  it 
was  the  first  among  all  the  churches  to 
have  a  letter  from  the  apostle  to  the 
Gentiles. 

There  is  still  another  epistle  which  is 
addressed  to  a  church — the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews.  While  this  epistle  does  not 
indicate  the  particular  community  to 
which  it  was  written,  yet  its  destination 
may  be  inferred  from  its  contents.  The 
epistle  is  written  primarily  for  a  Chris- 
tian church,  a  great  body  of  whose  mem- 
bers   are    intimately    familiar    with    the 


44  NEW  THOUGHTS 

temple  worship  of  the  Jews,  and  its 
writing  is  inspired  by  some  overshadowing 
catastrophe  which  is  near  at  hand. 

It  is  more  than  likely  that  the  letter 
was  addressed  to  some  one  of  the  great 
Syrian  cities.  Antioch  in  Syria  probably 
contained  the  Hebrew  Christians  who 
were  the  center  of  the  author's  solicitous 
care.  How  natural  that  Barnabas  should 
have  a  special  regard  for  the  members 
of  his  own  race  in  the  chosen  city  where 
he  labored  so  zealously  for  the  Lord. 
Antioch  was  one  of  the  first  centers  to 
be  evangelized.  The  church's  member- 
ship was  cosmopolitan  in  character.  Men 
of  Cyprus  and  of  Cyrene  were  numbered 
in  its  fellowship.  These  believers  included 
the  Grecian  Jews  in  their  missionary 
ministrations.  And  the  Christian  com- 
munity of  Antioch  was  largely  composed 
of  people  who  were  animated  with  Jewish 
sympathies,  full  of  interest  in  the  temple 
worship,  and  glorying  in  the  name  of 
Hebrew.  These  people  spoke  the  Greek 
tongue,  were  familiar  with  the  Greek  ver- 
sion of  the  Old  Testament,  and  were  well 
versed  in  the  sacrificial  law. 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  45 

Then  it  was  in  Antioch  that  Peter, 
after  certain  came  from  James,  with- 
drew his  fellowship  from  the  Gentiles. 
The  Jewish  element  in  the  Antioch  church 
must  have  been  very  strong  indeed. 
And,  in  the  light  of  a  terrible  scourge 
which  is  about  to  overtake  them,  how 
altogether  appropriate  that  their  former 
leader  should  remember  them  in  their 
threatening  affliction,  and  should  seek  to 
prevent  a  worse  sorrow.  For  to  one  who 
knew  and  loved  Jesus  Christ  as  Barnabas 
did,  there  is  no  doubting  that,  once 
others  saw  in  the  Saviour  what  he  expe- 
rienced, they  would  never  forsake  their 
Lord  and  Master,  who  is  greater  than  all 
angels,  the  High  Priest  forever,  the  author 
and  the  finisher  of  faith. 

Now,  list  the  names  of  all  the  cities 
whose  churches  had  epistles  written  unto 
them,  and  the  list  includes  the  cities  of 
Rome,  Corinth,  Ephesus,  Philippi,  Colossse, 
Thessalonica,  Antioch  in  Syria,  and  the 
cities  of  Galatia.  But  where  is  Rome? 
Where  is  Corinth?  \Miere  is  Ephesus? 
WTiere  is  Philippi?  Wliere  is  Colossae? 
WTiere  is  Thessalonica?    Where  is  Antioch? 


46  NEW  THOUGHTS 

Where  are  the  cities  of  Galatia?  Which 
one  of  these  cities  Hes  within  the  borders 
of  the  homeland  of  Palestine?  It  is  sig' 
nificant  that  of  the  eight  places  named, 
four  are  in  Europe  and  four  are  in  Asia 
Minor.  Where,  then,  are  the  epistles 
which  were  written  especially  for  the 
churches  in  Judaea,  or  in  Samaria,  or  in 
Galilee?  It  is  a  striking  fact  that  every 
epistle  in  the  New  Testament  which  was 
written  to  a  church  was  written  to  a  mis- 
sionary church.  If  it  had  not  been  for 
the  missionary  enterprise,  the  world  would 
never  have  had  the  Bible  at  all. 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  47 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  FIRST  BOOK  ABOUT  THE 
LAST  THINGS 

The  book  of  Revelation  occupies  a 
unique  place  among  the  books  of  the 
New  Testament.  It  begins  with  the 
word  "Apocalypse,"  and  that  one  word 
immediately  sets  the  book  apart  into  a 
class  of  literature  not  otherwise  found  in 
the  accepted  list  of  canonical  books  which 
have  been  vested  with  apostolic  authority. 

The  last  book  in  the  Bible  finds  the 
occasion  for  its  writing  in  the  height  of 
the  fierce  persecutions  which  had  their 
rise  in  the  reign  of  Nero.  John  has  been 
banished  to  the  isle  of  Patmos,  because 
of  the  word  of  God  and  the  testimony  of 
Jesus.  He  is  in  the  Spirit  on  the  Lord's 
Day,  and  he  hears  behind  him  a  great 
voice,  as  of  a  trumpet,  saying,  "What 
thou  seest,  write."  And  John  "saw  seven 
golden  candlesticks;  and  in  the  midst  of 
the  candlesticks  one  like  unto  a  son  of 
man,  clothed  with  a  garment  down  to  the 


48  NEW  THOUGHTS 

foot,  and  girt  about  at  the  breasts  with 
a  golden  girdle.  And  his  head  and  his 
hair  were  white  as  white  wool,  white  as 
snow;  and  his  eyes  were  as  a  flame  of  fire; 
and  his  feet  like  unto  burnished  brass, 
as  if  it  had  been  refined  in  a  furnace;  and 
his  voice  as  the  voice  of  many  waters. 
And  he  had  in  his  right  hand  seven  stars: 
and  out  of  his  mouth  proceeded  a  sharp 
two-edged  sword;  and  his  countenance  was 
as  the  sun  shineth  in  his  strength."  And 
he  said,  "I  am  the  first  and  the  last,  and 
the  Living  one;  and  I  was  dead,  and  be- 
hold, I  am  alive  forevermore.  .  .  .  Write 
therefore  the  things  which  thou  sawest, 
and  the  things  which  are,  and  the  things 
which  shall  come  to  pass  hereafter."  And 
he  was  to  send  what  he  wrote  to  the  seven 
churches  that  were  in  Asia. 

And  the  opening  chapters  of  the  Rev- 
elation are  taken  up  with  the  letters  to 
the  seven  churches.  But  in  what  seven 
cities  do  we  find  the  churches  to  which 
these  letters  are  sent.^ 

1.  Ephesus  is  the  first  named  among 
the  cities,  perhaps  because  the  city  itself 
was  the  metropolis  of  the  province  and 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  49 

the  seat  of  power.  Or  it  may  be  that 
the  city  was  the  first  in  order  from  the 
place  of  the  writing  of  the  Revelation. 
Then,  too,  Ephesus  was  the  present  resi- 
dence of  the  apostle  John. 

2.  Smyrna  was  a  Grecian  city  in  the 
w^estern  part  of  Asia  Minor,  the  most 
brilliant  and  splendid  of  the  cities  of  the 
province  of  Asia  in  the  days  of  the  Roman 
empire.  It  alone  of  all  the  seven  cities 
abides  intact  to  this  day.  Its  church  has 
had  an  honorable  history.  It  contributed 
to  the  noble  band  of  martyrs.  The  aged 
Poly  carp,  disciple  of  John  the  beloved, 
and  eighty-six  years  a  Christian,  was 
burned  to  death  in  Smyrna  in  155. 

3.  Pergamum  was  an  illustrious  city  of 
Mysia,  the  capital  of  the  province,  al- 
though built  in  from  the  sea  and  away 
from  the  main  routes  of  travel  and  of 
trade.  The  city  was  renowned  as  the 
residence  of  kings.  It  was  widely  known 
in  the  ancient  world  for  its  large  library 
of  200,000  volumes;  and  the  city  excelled 
in  the  manufacture  of  parchment. 

4.  Thyatira  was  a  flourishing  commercial 
and  manufacturing  city  in  Lydia.    Numer- 


50  NEW  THOUGHTS 

ous  trade  guilds  were  organized  among 
the  people.  The  guild  of  dyers  is  men- 
tioned in  several  inscriptions.  And  the 
peculiar  temptations  to  the  Christians  in 
Thyatira  grew  out  of  their  connection  with 
these  ancient  unions,  since  idolatrous 
practices  were  closely  observed  in  the 
guild  meetings. 

5.  Sardis  was  an  ancient  city  of  Lydia, 
and  in  the  first  century  of  the  Christian 
era  retained  still  the  name  of  a  former 
grandeur.  It  had  at  one  time  been  the 
home  of  kings  likewise,  but  at  the  present 
time  it  is  a  mere  village  in  which  a  few 
shepherds  dwell. 

6.  Philadelphia  was  located  in  the  east- 
ern part  of  Lydia  at  the  very  head  of  the 
coast  valley  which  extends  inland  from 
the  gulf  of  Smyrna.  Beyond  the  city 
eastward  on  the  high  plateau  of  Asia 
Minor  extended  a  field  for  great  useful- 
ness, and  there  was  set  the  "open  door.'* 
After  the  varying  vicissitudes  of  all  the 
centuries  there  still  are  to  be  found  in 
the  city  which  occupies  the  site  of  ancient 
Philadelphia  bodies  of  Christians  who  are 
obedient  to  the  word  of  the  Lord. 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  51 

7.  Laodicea  was  a  Phrygian  city,  lying 
between  Hierapolis  and  Colossse,  in  the 
valley  of  the  Lycus  and  on  the  main  trade 
route.  It  was  rich  enough  to  rebuild 
after  a  destructive  earthquake  without 
accepting  outside  aid.  It  was  the  center 
of  large  banking  and  commercial  transac- 
tions. It  was  also  famous  for  the  glossy 
black  wool  of  its  sheep,  and  for  the  manu- 
factured garments  which  were  made  from 
it.  The  very  site  of  the  city  is  now  utterly 
destroyed,  and  the  building  materials, 
taken  from  the  ruins,  have  been  used 
elsewhere. 

These  are  the  cities  in  which  the 
churches  of  Revelation  are  to  be  found: 
Ephesus,  and  Smyrna,  and  Pergamum, 
and  Thyatira,  and  Sardis,  and  Philadel- 
phia, and  Laodicea.  But  these  seven 
cities  are  all  in  Asia  Minor,  and  not  one 
of  them  is  located  in  the  land  of  Palestine. 
To  each  of  these  seven  cities  the  gospel 
message  of  a  Saviour's  redeeming  love  had 
been  carried  by  the  hands  of  mission- 
aries. 

Then  it  is  clear  that  the  churches  to 
which    the    one   book    of   prophecy    and 


52  NEW  THOUGHTS 

revelation  in  the  New  Testament  was 
written  were  all  missionary  churches.  If 
if  had  not  been  for  the  missionary  enter- 
prise, the  world  would  never  have  had 
the  Bible  at  all. 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  53 


CHAPTER  VI 

SO  GENERAL  THEY  BECOME 
PARTICULAR 

1.  The  Epistle  of  James  was  written 
to  that  part  of  the  twelve  tribes  which 
were  known  as  the  Dispersion.  This 
term  was  applied  technically  to  the  Jews 
who  were  scattered  abroad  throughout  the 
Roman  world.  Nearly  every  commercial 
center  contained  its  Jewish  community. 
People  of  like  interests  and  a  foreign 
tongue  always  group  themselves  together 
in  a  strange  city.  Because,  however,  of 
their  unusually  strong  racial  and  religious 
ties,  the  Jewish  section  in  these  foreign 
cities  became  a  veritable  solidarity.  They 
maintained  their  own  places  of  worship 
and  instruction.  The  synagogues  of  the 
dispersed  Jews  were  places  of  command- 
ing power. 

In  the  missionary  effort  of  the  early 
church  the  almost  universal  appeal  was 
made,  first  of  all,  to  the  Sabbath  congre- 
gations  which   assembled   in   the   Jewish 


54  NEW  THOUGHTS 

sections  of  these  foreign  cities.  And  from 
among  these  bodies  of  devout  worshipers 
came  the  first  earnest  workers  who  formed 
the  beginnings  of  the  communities  of 
Christian  behevers.  To  such  general 
groups  of  Jewish  Christians  the  Epistle 
of  James  was  written. 

2.  The  First  Epistle  of  Peter  is  ad- 
dressed to  the  elect  who  are  sojourners 
of  the  Dispersion  in  Pontus,  Galatia, 
Cappadocia,  Asia,  and  Bithynia.  Peter 
was  the  first  one  among  the  twelve  who 
was  called  to  give  the  gospel  openly  to 
a  Gentile.  Yet  even  after  the  special 
call  of  God  in  the  vision  upon  the  house- 
top, and  in  the  particular  proclamation 
of  the  gospel  message  to  Cornelius,  the 
Italian,  with  all  that  its  acceptance  im- 
plied, Peter  became  a  missionary  mostly 
to  Jews.  But  the  Gentiles  and  the  Jews 
were  members  together  of  the  same  Chris- 
tian body.  And  a  letter  which  was  written 
primarily  for  the  Jewish  Christians  would 
also  be  received  by  the  other  Christians 
in  the  community. 

The  reference  to  Pontus,  Galatia,  Cap- 
padocia, Bithynia,  and  Asia  enlarges  our 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  55 

conception  of  the  missionary  labors  of  the 
apostle  Peter.  These  provinces  in  Asia 
Minor  were  the  scenes  of  the  labors  of  a 
number  of  the  apostles.  Portions  of  these 
provinces  were  first  visited  by  Paul. 
And  it  is  quite  probable  that  Peter,  con- 
ceiving his  ministry  to  be  supplemental 
to  that  of  Paul,  visited  many  of  the  same 
centers.  The  distinction  between  their 
callings — Paul  as  missionary  to  the  Gen- 
tiles and  Peter  as  missionary  to  the  Jews 
of  the  Dispersion — might  have  been  clear 
enough  to  the  apostles  in  Jerusalem,  but 
it  must  have  been  very  confusing  to  the 
converts  upon  the  foreign  field.  Nor 
was  this  the  last  time  that  differences  of 
opinion  among  the  Christian  leaders  and 
distinctions  in  ecclesiastical  administra- 
tion at  the  home  base  have  embarrassed 
the  ready  acceptance  of  the  gospel  of  re- 
deeming grace  and  prevented  the  faster 
coming  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

3.  The  Second  Epistle  of  Peter  is  ad- 
dressed to  "them  that  have  obtained  a 
like  precious  faith  with  us."  This  second 
letter  is  written  to  the  same  group  of 
people  as  the  first  epistle,  only  now  the 


56  NEW  THOUGHTS 

message  is  not  directed  primarily  to  the 
Jews  of  the  Dispersion.  The  address  of 
the  epistle  is  greatly  broadened.  It  in- 
cludes every  one  who  has  obtained  "a  like 
precious  faith  with  us"  in  our  God  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  The  idea  is  very 
similar  to  those  views  which  were  ex- 
pressed by  Peter  at  the  baptism  of  Cor- 
nelius and  later  before  the  great  Council 
in  Jerusalem.  AVhile  Peter  spoke  to 
Cornelius,  together  with  his  kinsmen  and 
his  near  friends,  the  Holy  Spirit  fell  on 
all  them  that  heard  the  Word,  and  they 
spoke  with  tongues,  magnifying  God. 
Then  Peter  answered  the  inevitable  ques- 
tions which  arose  in  the  minds  of  Peter's 
Jewish  Christian  companions,  by  asking, 
**Can  any  man  forbid  the  water,  that 
these  should  not  be  baptized,  who  have 
received  the  Holy  Spirit  as  well  as  we?" 
And  later  while  Peter  was  recounting  the 
evangelization  of  the  home  of  Cornelius 
the  Italian  to  the  brethren  in  Judsea, 
Peter  bears  testimony  to  the  fact  that 
God  gave  unto  them  "the  like  gift  as  he 
did  also  unto  us."  Then  again,  in  the 
presence  of  the  Great  Council,  many  years 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  57 

afterward,  Peter  refers  to  this  incident 
and  reaffirms  his  statement  that  God  gave 
them  the  Holy  Spirit  even  "as  he  did  unto 
us."  And  hi  this  company  with  himself 
Peter  includes  those  of  his  own  race  who  had 
previously  received  the  like  gift  of  God. 

The  use  of  the  plural  pronoun  in  the 
greeting  of  the  Second  Epistle  of  Peter 
(a  like  precious  faith  with  "us")  is  most 
illuminating.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  Peter  has  in  mind  the  whole  great 
group  of  his  own  race  to  whom  the  words 
of  redeeming  love  first  came.  Then  in 
sending  this  letter  to  those  who  "have 
obtained  a  like  precious  faith  with  us," 
Peter  evidently  addresses  this  Second 
Epistle  particularly  to  the  non-Jewish 
element  in  the  communities  to  which  his 
first  letter  had  been  sent. 

The  two  epistles  of  Peter  were  wTitten 
to  the  same  general  Christian  communities 
in  the  provinces  of  Asia  INIinor.  The  first 
epistle  was  wTitten  primarily  for  the  Jew- 
ish element  in  the  Body  of  Christ.  The 
second  epistle  was  written  primarily  for 
the  Gentile  element  among  the  growing 
body  of  behevers  in  Christ.     This  order 


58  NEW  THOUGHTS 

is  Pauline — to  the  Jew  first,  and  also  to 
the  Greek.  And,  further,  it  is  inspiring 
to  believe  that  the  man  who  first  was 
chosen  to  become  the  apostle  to  the  Gen- 
tiles, closes  his  missionary  career  with  an 
epistle  to  the  Gentiles — to  them  that 
"have  obtained  a  like  precious  faith  with 
us":  that  is,  with  Peter  and  his  many 
Jewish  friends. 

4.  The  First  Epistle  of  John  was  written 
late  in  the  apostle's  life.  It  was  doubtless 
addressed  to  the  Christians  who  were  liv- 
ing in  the  territory  of  the  province  of 
Asia  contiguous  to  the  city  of  Ephesus. 
It  reflects  a  period  near  the  close  of  the 
first  century,  and  was  evidently  sent  as 
a  warning  to  Christians  to  be  on  their 
guard  against  certain  false  teachers  who 
had  lately  appeared  in  the  body  of  Chris- 
tian professors.  Then,  too,  a  Gentile 
community  was  full  of  idolatry.  Ephesus 
was  the  center  of  a  degrading  idolatrous 
worship.  In  such  a  situation  even  mature 
Christians  would  be  in  urgent  need  of 
words  of  warning,  lest  they  also  might 
yield  to  the  beguiling  allurements  of  a 
popular  idolatry. 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  59 

5.  Jude  is  one  of  the  four  brethren 
of  our  Lord  who  in  the  days  of  his  flesh 
did  not  believe  in  him,  but,  immediately 
following  the  resurrection,  are  found  in 
the  company  of  the  Christian  believers. 
The  epistle  which  bears  the  name  of 
Jude  was  written  to  a  group  of  believers 
among  whom  the  doctrine  of  God's  grace 
had  been  proclaimed.  This  evidently  was 
a  Gentile  community  which  had  been 
visited  freely  by  the  apostles. 

Jude  describes  himself  as  brother  of 
James.  This,  then,  was  a  community  in 
which  James  was  well  known.  Antioch 
is  the  likeliest  of  all  places  of  the  many 
suggested  as  the  probable  destination  of 
the  epistle.  It  was  in  Antioch  that  cer- 
tain parties,  purporting  to  come  from 
James,  wrought  confusion  in  the  church 
by  starting  a  movement  back  to  Judaism. 
It  was  to  the  church  in  Jerusalem,  pre- 
sided over  by  James,  that  the  church  in 
Antioch  sent  Barnabas  and  Paul  to  pro- 
test the  actions  of  these  self-imposed 
troublers  of  the  Christian's  peace.  It  was 
James  who  signed  the  decree  of  the  Council 
which  Barnabas  and  Paul  brought  back  to 


60  NEW  THOUGHTS 

Antioch.  To  an  Antiochan  group  of 
believers  Jude  could  most  easily  identify 
himself  and  have  his  message  fully  authen- 
ticated by  merely  calling  himself  the 
brother  of  James. 

So  far,  then,  as  these  general  epistles 
are  concerned,  these  conclusions  are  be- 
coming evident: 

James  was  written  to  the  dispersed 
Jews  gathered  in  the  churches  of  the 
Roman  world. 

First  Peter  was  written  to  the  sojourners 
of  the  Dispersion  in  Pontus,  Galatia, 
Cappadocia,  Asia,  and  Bithynia. 

Second  Peter  was  written  to  the  whole 
body  of  believers,  particularly  the  Gen- 
tiles, in  Pontus,  Galatia,  Cappadocia, 
Asia,  and  Bithynia. 

First  John  was  written  to  the  Christians 
who  were  living  in  the  territory  closely 
surrounding  the  city  of  Ephesus. 

Jude  was  most  likely  written  to  the 
believers  in  Antioch. 

Now,  the  word  "Dispersion"  always 
carries  one  immediately  outside  the  land 
of  Palestine.  To  find  the  Jews  of  the 
Dispersion  search  must  be  made  in  the 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  61 

metropolitan  centers  of  the  Roman  world. 
And  James  wrote  to  the  Jews  of  the 
Dispersion. 

Then  where  is  Pontus?  And  where  is 
Galatia?  And  where  is  Cappadocia.^  And 
where  is  Asia?  And  where  is  Bithynia? 
And  where  is  Ephesus?  And  where  is 
Antioch?  These  names  all  sound  strangely 
familiar,  but  yet  they  are  not  designa- 
tions of  geographical  divisions  nor  the 
names  of  cities  in  Palestine.  Pontus 
and  Galatia,  Cappadocia  and  Asia,  Bi- 
thjmia  and  Ephesus,  and  Antioch — all  are 
located  in  the  provinces  of  Asia  Minor, 
and  Asia  Minor  was  almost  as  foreign 
to  Palestine  as  Asia  to-day  is  foreign  to 
America. 

This,  then,  is  the  inevitable  conclusion: 
Every  epistle  in  the  New  Testament 
which  was  written  to  a  general  group  of 
believers  or  to  a  general  group  of  churches 
was  written  to  a  missionary  group.  If 
it  had  not  been  for  the  missionary  enter- 
prise, the  world  would  never  have  had 
the  Bible  at  all. 


es  NEW  THOUGHTS 


CHAPTER  Vn 

ILLUSTRATING  THE  ANCIENT 

ART  OF  PERSONAL  LETTER- 

WTIITING 

Six  of  the  twenty-seven  books  in  the 
New  Testament  are  personal  letters.  Of 
these  six  books  three  are  called  pastoral 
epistles,  because  the  instructions  which 
they  contain  relate  mostly  to  church 
organization  and  to  church  administra- 
tion. Of  these  six  personal  letters,  two 
were  written  by  the  apostle  John  and 
four  were  written  by  the  apostle  Paul. 
The  six  letters  are  addressed  to  five  indi- 
viduals: Timothy,  Titus,  Philemon,  Cyria, 
and  Gains.  The  six  personal  letters  pre- 
served out  of  the  correspondence  of  the 
apostles  are  First  and  Second  Timothy, 
Second  and  Third  John,  Titus,  and 
Philemon. 

1.  Second  John  was  written  to  a  Chris- 
tian woman  by  the  name  of  Cyria.  The 
home  of  Cyria  was  a  center  of  Christian 
hospitality,  and  because  of  the  freedom 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  63 

of  access  which  Christian  teachers  had 
to  her  home  on  account  of  her  hospitable 
kindness,  her  household  was  all  the  more 
imperiled  from  itinerant  teachers  who  de- 
nied the  cardinal  tenets  of  the  Christian 
faith.  And  John  writes  this  commendatory 
epistle,  with  its  entreating  words  of  warn- 
ing, in  order  that  the  home  of  a  dear 
friend  may  be  fully  protected  in  the  ways 
of  Christian  truth.  How  fitting  it  is  that 
the  one  letter  in  the  New  Testament 
which  is  written  expressly  to  a  woman 
should  come  from  the  pen  of  the  one 
among  the  twelve  disciples  to  whom  the 
Lord  Jesus  intrusted  the  care  of  his 
sorrowing  and  widowed  mother. 

In  the  mere  fact  of  this  letter  to  Cyria 
we  have  further  evidence  of  the  enlarging 
place  which  was  occupied  by  women  in 
the  apostolic  church.  Many  of  their 
residences  were  used  so  freely  as  places 
of  Christian  assembly  that  their  very 
homes  became  known  as  church  houses. 
It  was  into  a  home  like  that  that  Priscilla 
and  Aquila  received  Apollos  and  taught 
him  the  way  of  the  Lord  more  perfectly. 

The  refining  influence  of   Cyria   upon 


64  NEW  THOUGHTS 

her  own  children  may  be  gathered  from 
the  testimony  which  John  gives  to  some 
of  the  members  of  her  family  whom  he 
has  met  in  Ephesus.  For  these  children, 
now  away  from  home  and  living  in  a  big 
and  wicked  city,  to  be  found  "walking 
in  the  truth"  is  a  remarkable  tribute  to 
the  careful  Christian  nurture  which  they 
had  received  at  the  hands  of  their  de- 
voted mother.  This  one-page  letter  from 
the  apostle  John  presents  a  beautiful 
picture  of  a  charming  home  circle  of 
earnest  Christians,  among  whom  the  early 
missionaries  of  the  Christ  found  frequent 
entertainment  and  engaging  hospitahty. 

2.  Third  John  is  inscribed  to  Gains. 
He  appears  to  be  entirely  outside  the 
lists  of  dignitaries  and  oflScials  in  the 
apostolic  church.  It  is  more  than  likely 
that  Gains  belonged  to  the  humbler  fol- 
lowers of  our  Lord;  and  yet,  perhaps, 
with  even  less  to  give  than  many  others, 
he  bestowed  bountiful  hospitality  upon 
these  working  friends  of  Jesus.  How  like 
the  goodness  of  God,  whose  only  begotten 
Son  came  to  be  bom  of  a  lowly  virgin, 
and  to  be  cradled  in  a  manger,  and  to 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  65 

have  the  sacrificial  offering  of  the  poor 
made  in  his  behalf  upon  his  presentation 
in  the  temple — how  like  the  goodness  of 
God  to  have  the  last  written  message 
from  the  apostolic  group  to  be  a  letter 
to  one  of  his  poor,  Gains  by  name;  humble 
and  poor,  and  yet  very  rich  in  faith  and 
love. 

3.  Philemon  is  the  one  letter  among 
all  Paul's  epistles  in  the  New  Testament 
which  is  addressed  to  an  individual  upon 
a  purely  personal  matter.  Paul  was  a 
prisoner  in  the  city  of  the  Caesars,  living 
for  the  space  of  two  years  in  his  own 
hired  house,  and  receiving  all  who  came 
unto  him.  And  one  day  among  those  who 
came  was  Onesimus,  a  slave  from  the  home 
of  Philemon,  Paul's  friend,  in  faraway 
Colossse. 

Onesimus  was  a  Phrygian  slave.  The 
historians  give  the  Phrygian  slaves  excep- 
tionally bad  names.  However,  Onesimus 
may  have  been  an  exception  to  the  bad 
run  of  the  common  lot  of  slaves;  at  least 
his  name  appears  to  imply  as  much.  But 
one  day,  perhaps,  he  failed.  And  then 
he  ran  away  to  cover  up  his  failure.    And 


66  NEW  THOUGHTS 

the  best  place  in  all  the  world  to  hide  in 
is  a  big  city,  and  ofiF  he  runs  to  Rome. 
Nearly  everybody  went  to  Rome. 

Onesimus  is  in  Rome,  hiding  from  God. 

Paul  is  in  Rome,  finding  folks  for  God. 

Onesimus  comes  to  Paul  from  the 
glamour  of  the  city's  appeal.  And  Onesi- 
mus comes  to  Paul,  but  Onesimus  finds 
God. 

Then  Paul  writes  a  letter  to  Philemon. 
But  the  letter  is  mostly  about  Onesimus. 
The  runaway  slave  with  the  grace  of  God 
in  his  heart  has  become  so  good  and  so 
faithful  and  so  helpful  a  servant  always 
that  Paul  would  like  to  have  his  company 
forever.  But  Paul  sends  Onesimus  back 
to  his  former  master.  And  so  Onesimus 
returns  to  Philemon,  but  he  is  a  Christian 
now,  and  Philemon  and  Onesimus  work 
so  closely  together  in  the  service  of  the 
Lord  that  they  were  honored  with  martyr- 
dom at  the  same  time.  For  Philemon  and 
Appia,  his  wife,  and  Archippus  his  son, 
and  Onesimus — his  brother  now  and  slave 
no  longer — were  all  stoned  to  death  in 
the  reign  of  Nero. 

4.  First    Timothy    was    written    after 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  67 

Paul's  first  imprisonment  in  Rome  and 
while  Paul  was  making  a  tour  of  the 
churches  in  the  eastern  Mediterranean 
lands.  In  the  interim  between  the  two 
imprisonments  in  Rome,  Paul  is  confirm- 
ing the  churches  in  the  lands  bordering 
about  the  Mgean  Sea.  The  Christian 
communities  had  grown  in  numbers  and 
there  is  need  now  for  some  additional 
administrators.  Then,  too,  in  his  absence 
of  some  five  years,  these  more  settled 
circles  of  believers  had  already  begun  to 
busy  themselves  about  the  less  important 
matters  of  the  Christian  faith;  and  a  few 
among  them  were  propagating  views  which 
were  entirely  contrary  to  the  truths  of 
the  gospel.  Hence  there  is  imperative 
need  that  reliable  men  be  placed  in  leader- 
ship in  all  the  fast-forming  church  centers. 
Timothy  was  such  a  leader  in  Corinth, 
and  later  in  Ephesus. 

5.  The  Epistle  to  Titus  was  written 
also  in  the  time  between  the  two  im- 
prisonments at  Rome.  Titus  had  been 
intrusted  with  the  supervision  of  the 
work  in  Crete.  Paul  speaks  of  the  care 
he  had  for  all  of  the  churches.     Shortly 


68  NEW  THOUGHTS 

after  the  first  missionary  journey,  Paul 
purposes  to  visit  again  all  the  cities  in 
which  the  Gospel  missions  had  been 
started.  K  "the  care  of  all  the  churches" 
was  a  motive  sufficient  to  engage  Paul 
in  a  second  missionary  journey,  we  may 
be  sure  that  again,  and  yet  again,  he 
returned  in  his  thoughts  and  in  his  travels 
to  the  familiar  scenes  of  the  more  easily 
accessible  places  which  he  had  evangelized. 
Paul  gives  a  bit  of  advice  to  Titus  in 
regard  to  the  culture  of  the  converts 
which  ought  to  be  universally  observed. 
"And  let  our  people  also  learn  to  main- 
tain good  works  for  necessary  uses,  that 
they  be  not  unfruitful."  Paul  himself  was 
the  master  of  a  trade.  He  knew  how 
to  work  with  his  own  hands.  Once  and 
again  he  worked  early  and  late  at  his 
trade  in  order  that  he  might  not  be  a 
burdensome  charge  to  anyone.  The  young 
Jews  were  all  taught  useful  trades.  And 
Paul  instructs  Titus  to  so  supervise  the 
practical  training  of  the  Gentile  Chris- 
tian converts  that  they  too  may  become 
valuable  working  members  of  the  social 
order.    In  view  of  this  one  command  alone 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  69 

there  is  sufficient  apostolic  warrant  for 
the  development  of  trade  and  vocational 
schools  in  mission  lands. 

6.  Second  Timothy  is  the  last  letter  we 
iiave  from  the  hand  of  the  great  apostle 
to  the  Gentiles.  The  scene  shifts  with 
dramatic  suddenness.  In  the  other  pas- 
toral epistles,  Paul  is  toiu-ing  the  fields  of 
his  most  fruitful  missionary  labors.  He 
is  journeying  from  point  to  point,  estab- 
lishing the  churches  in  the  fear  of  the 
Lord.  He  is  planning  future  campaigns. 
He  is  calling  a  winter  conference  for 
Nicopolis.  But  instead  of  the  winter  con- 
ference with  Christian  workers  and  friends 
in  Nicopolis,  Paul  will  winter  in  Rome. 

Paul  was  apparently  rudely  snatched 
from  his  labors  of  love  and  returned  to 
Rome.  The  days  between  the  two  Roman 
imprisonments  were  days  of  intense  con- 
cern and  incessant  activity.  The  field 
was  large,  and  Paul  was  eager  to  cover 
the  territory  as  quickly  as  possible.  It 
is  quite  probable  that  the  arrest  to  his 
labors  occurred  in  the  city  of  Troas,  for 
the  fact  that  his  baggage  of  books  and 
parchments  and  clothing  were  left  at  Troas, 


70  NEW  THOUGHTS 

would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  relentless 
persecutors  had  at  last  accomplished  their 
evil  designs;  and,  perhaps  before  Paul 
could  assemble  his  personal  belongings,  he 
was  bound  in  chains,  treated  as  a  male- 
factor, and  dispatched  to  Rome. 

The  ship  which  bore  Paul  as  a  prisoner 
would  doubtless  sail  by  way  of  Ephesus, 
Miletus,  and  Corinth.  At  Ephesus  Paul 
received  some  special  care  from  Onesi- 
phorus,  who  perhaps  followed  Paul  to 
Rome  in  order  that  he  might  further 
minister  to  the  prisoner  of  the  Lord.  For 
that  touch  of  true  human  sympathy  we 
all  shall  want  to  thank  Onesiphorus  some 
day  in  heaven.  And  then,  too,  at  Ephesus, 
Timothy  must  have  seen  the  dearest- 
loved  man  in  all  his  world  closely  confined 
in  chains,  and  it  was  that  sight  which  so 
moved  Timothy  to  tears  that  the  aged 
apostle  in  prison  recalls  his  poignant 
sorrow  day  and  night. 

Paul  once  went  bound  to  Jerusalem; 
then  he  was  bound  by  the  constraint 
of  Christ. 

Paul  now  goes  bound  to  Rome;  but  now 
he  is  fast  holden  by  the  chains  of  Caesar. 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  71 

There  is  the  sharpest  possible  contrast 
between  the  first  and  the  second  imprison- 
ments of  Paul  in  Rome.  In  the  first 
imprisonment  Paul  lived  in  his  own  hired 
house,  receiving  all  who  came  unto  him; 
while  in  the  second  imprisonment  in  order 
to  find  Paul  at  all,  the  kind-hearted 
Onesiphorus  had  to  seek  for  him  most 
diligently.  Formerly  Paul  was  easily 
accessible  to  all,  but  now  he  is  so  badly 
treated  that  even  the  place  of  his  confine- 
ment is  poorly  remembered. 

And  Paul  is  almost  alone  now.  Only 
Luke  is  w^ith  him.  And  in  the  hour  of 
his  utter  loneliness  he  turns  to  Timothy. 
And  it  is  to  Timothy  that  Paul  writes 
his  last  thoughts. 

At  Paul's  first  defense  no  one  took  his 
part,  but  all  forsook  him.  Yet  the  Lord 
stood  by  him,  and  Paul  was  delivered  out 
of  the  mouth  of  the  lion. 

And  now  he  has  a  brief  respite.  For 
a  time  at  least  he  is  spared.  And  he 
hears  again  the  call  to  the  work.  He  wants 
his  books  and  his  parchments,  particularly 
his  parchments.  For  although  in  prison, 
yet  Paul  must  write.    And  well  for  us  all 


72  NEW  THOUGHTS 

that  he  did  write  in  prison,  for  the  prison 
literature  of  the  apostle  Paul  has  very 
greatly  enriched  the  world. 

Now  Paul  writes  to  Timothy.  His 
first  thought  is  for  the  work.  He  is 
bound — yes,  he  is  bound! — but  the  word 
of  God  is  not  bound.  And  in  that  he  can 
rejoice  with  all  his  heart. 

Yet  the  end  is  near.  A  great  sorrow 
surges  through  the  soul  of  Paul.  He  is 
in  a  dungeon — a  dungeon  dank  and  damp. 
And  the  winter  is  not  far  off,  and  his 
cloak  is  at  Troas,  half  way  across  the  em- 
pire. Poor  Paul!  Bring  the  cloak  with 
you  when  you  come,  Timothy;  and  haste, 
O  haste,  Timothy,  to  reach  Rome  before 
winter ! 

In  the  hour  of  his  trial  in  Gethsemane 
the  Master  turned  to  the  inner  circle 
of  the  twelve,  Peter  and  James  and 
John. 

In  the  hour  of  his  trial  in  the  dungeon 
at  Rome  Paul  turns  to  Timothy,  his  be- 
loved child  in  the  gospel. 

And  Timothy  did  not  fail  the  one  to 
whom  he  owed  the  fact  that  he  was  a 
Christian    at    all.      Timothy    hurried    to 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  73 

Rome  witli  all  speed,  and  upon  his  arrival 
in  Rome  he  so  identified  himself  with  the 
apostle  in  chains  that  he  too  was  im- 
prisoned. 

But  Paul  was  a  Jew,  circumcised  the 
eighth  day,  of  the  stock  of  Israel,  of  the 
tribe  of  Benjamin,  a  Hebrew  of  the 
Hebrews;  as  touching  the  law,  a  Pharisee 
— a  separatist.  And  yet  in  the  end  of 
the  days  we  find  him  turning  for  solace 
and  help  to  one  who  was  brought  up 
outside  the  pale  of  Jewry.  By  the  miracle 
of  God's  great  grace,  Paul  had  so  far 
accepted  his  missionary  call  to  the  Gen- 
tiles that  at  the  last  he  chose  a  convert 
from  the  Gentile  world  to  be  his  constant 
companion. 

And  so  there  are  these  five  to  whom 
the  apostles  Paul  and  John  wrote  letters: 
Timothy  and  Titus  and  Philemon  and 
Cyria  and  Gains.  Yet  no  one  of  these 
five  bears  a  Hebrew  name,  and  no  one 
of  the  five  was  a  resident  in  the  home 
land  of  Palestine.  Three  of  the  five 
names  are  Greek  names:  Timothy  and 
Philemon  and  Cyria.  Two  of  the  five 
names  are  Latin  names:  Titus  and  Gains. 


74  NEW  THOUGHTS 

But  who  are  Timothy  and  Titus  and 
Philemon  and  Cyria  and  Gaius?  They 
are  all  Gentile  Christians. 

How,  then,  came  these  five  to  be 
Christians  in  the  first  place?  They  all 
were  converted  to  Christ  through  the 
labors  of  the  missionaries. 

It  is  now  manifest  that  every  letter  in 
the  New  Testament  which  was  written 
to  an  individual  was  written  to  the  con- 
vert of  a  missionary.  If  it  had  not  been 
for  the  missionary  enterprise,  the  world 
would  never  have  had  the  Bible  at  all. 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  75 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  FIRST  VOLUIVIE  OF  AN 
INTERRUPTED  SERIES 

The  single-volume  history  of  the  early 
church  was  never  intended  by  the  author 
to  be  known  as  The  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 
The  author  of  the  Acts  had  a  far  greater 
plan  in  mind  than  the  writing  of  this 
volume  alone.  In  the  opening  verse  of 
the  Acts,  the  author  refers  to  his  Gospel; 
and  he  calls  it  "the  first  treatise."  In 
all  Bible  translations  this  word  "first" 
is  translated  "former."  And  yet  as  Luke 
used  this  word  it  never  means  "former." 
If  Luke  had  intended  to  use  the  word 
which  means  "former,"  the  sane  judgment 
of  scholarly  men  must  agree  that  he  knew 
better  than  to  use  the  word  which  means 
"first."  Then  why  did  Luke  speak  of  his 
Gospel  as  the  "first"  treatise .^^  For  the  very 
obvious  reason  that  he  evidently  planned 
a  series  of  books  which  should  amply  por- 
tray the  history  of  the  early  days  of  the 
founding  of  the  Christian  Church. 


76  NEW  THOUGHTS 

Why  Luke  never  wrote  the  additional 
volumes  in  his  proposed  series  of  books 
no  one  now  knows.  Our  Lord  and  Master 
went  into  the  fuller  presence  of  the  Father 
with  many  unuttered  thoughts  in  his 
mind.  For  at  the  end  of  his  earthly  jour- 
ney in  the  company  of  the  twelve,  Jesus 
said,  *T  have  yet  many  things  to  say  unto 
you,  but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now." 
The  unspoken  message  of  the  Master  was 
thus  lost  to  the  world.  And  in  a  much 
smaller  measure,  but  even  yet  a  bit  like 
that,  it  may  be,  the  unwritten  history 
of  the  doings  of  the  apostles  which  Luke 
planned,  was  likewise  carried  in  the  bosom 
of  the  disciple  "whose  praise  was  in  all 
the  churches"  into  the  heavenly  land. 

And  so  the  Acts  is  the  sole  surviving 
historical  record  of  the  Spirit-filled  days 
of  the  apostoHc  labors.  Luke  is  a  great 
historian,  and  is  personally  familiar  with 
the  events  in  the  progress  of  the  book. 
Li  the  introduction  to  his  Gospel  Luke 
appeals  to  authorities,  for  he  had  care- 
fully examined  those  who  were  eyewit- 
nesses to  the  ministry  of  Jesus.  But  in 
the  Acts  Luke  is  himself  an  eyewitness. 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  77 

He  is  present  at  more  than  one  third  of 
all  of  the  incidents  which  he  records,  and 
he  travels  in  closest  companionship  with 
the  leading  figure  in  the  extension  of 
the  Kingdom.  Luke  is  so  true  to  every 
detail  that  the  greatest  student  of  the 
travels  of  the  apostle  Paul  regards  the 
accuracy  of  the  Acts  as  of  so  high  a  char- 
acter as  to  constitute  the  book  a  guide 
to  travelers  in  those  distant  lands. 

It  is  evident  from  the  opening  verses 
of  the  Acts  that  Luke  conceived  the  his- 
tory of  the  Christian  Church  to  be  the 
continuous  work  of  Jesus,  through  the 
agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  the  lives 
of  the  followers  of  Jesus  who  were  to  be 
his  witnesses.  And  the  Acts  tells  simply 
how  the  good  tidings  of  great  joy  which 
were  for  all  people  were  first  published 
in  Jerusalem,  in  Judaea,  in  Samaria,  in 
Galilee,  and  finally  unto  the  uttermost 
part  of  the  earth — Rome. 

The  first  eleven  verses  of  the  Acts 
contains  the  Master's  commission  to  the 
apostles.  These  compelling  words  of  the 
Master  are  all  the  more  urgent  because 
they  are  the  very  last  words  which  the 


78  NEW  THOUGHTS 

apostolic  group  heard  from  the  lips  of 
their  risen  Lord. 

Acts  1.  12 — 8.  3  is  the  presentation  of 
the  founding  of  the  church  in  Jerusalem. 
The  apostles  are  fully  obedient  to  the 
command  of  their  Lord.  They  are  endued 
with  power  from  on  high,  and  immediately 
they  preach  repentance  and  remission  of 
sins,  beginning  at  Jerusalem.  And  on 
the  day  of  Pentecost,  people  from  every 
nation  under  heaven  hear  in  Jerusalem 
the  gospel  of  the  Son  of  God  in  the  very 
languages  in  which  they  were  born.  And 
Jerusalem  is  thoroughly  evangelized.  A 
large  company  of  the  priests  even  are 
obedient  to  the  word.  The  apostles  so 
testify  to  the  fact  of  the  resurrection 
that  the  Pharisees  are  silenced.  Now 
occur  the  first  stirrings  of  the  persecutors, 
and  one  of  the  results  of  the  first  perse- 
cution is  a  multiplying  of  the  word  by 
the  scattering  of  the  workers. 

Acts  8.  4—11.  18  tells  of  the  labors  of 
Philip  and  Peter  in  Judaea  and  Samaria; 
and  in  the  evangelization  of  these  native 
lands  an  Ethiopian  hears  the  gospel  from 
the   lips   of   Philip,    while    an   European 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  79 

receives  the  message  of  redeeming  love 
from  Peter.  Hidden  away  in  these  few 
verses  also  is  the  story  of  the  conversion 
of  Saul  of  Tarsus.  And  so  the  circle  is 
widening.  And  "the  church  throughout 
all  Judaea  and  Galilee  and  Samaria  had 
peace"  after  the  conversion  of  Saul;  "and, 
walking  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord  and  [in  the 
comfort  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  was  multiplied." 

Acts  11.  19 — 13.  3  recounts  the  most 
remarkable  development  in  the  work  of 
the  early  church.  It  is  the  proclamation 
of  the  gospel  to  Gentiles.  This  occurred 
in  Antioch  in  S;^Tia.  And  later  in  Antioch 
the  Holy  Spirit  called  two  of  their  best- 
known  leaders,  Barnabas  and  Saul,  and 
sent  them  upon  the  first  real  journey  in 
the  foreign  missionary  enterprise. 

Acts  13.  4 — 15.  35  comprises  the  first 
missionary  journey  of  Barnabas  and  Saul, 
and  carries  them  in  company  with  young 
Mark  into  the  provinces  of  Asia  Minor; 
and  the  successes  which  attend  their 
labors  require  a  church  council  in  Jeru- 
salem to  determine  authoritatively  the 
attitude  of  the  apostolic  church  to  the 
work  of  foreign  missions. 


80  NEW  THOUGHTS 

Acts  15.  36 — 18.  22  covers  Paul's  second 
missionary  journey,  and  carries  the  labors 
of  the  apostle  over  into  Macedonia.  It 
was  in  Troas,  during  this  second  mission- 
ary journey,  that  the  apostle  Paul  was 
joined  by  the  historian  Luke.  With  the 
exception  of  a  brief  period,  Luke  is  the 
constant  companion  of  Paul  until  the 
latter  reaches  Rome. 

Acts  18.  23—21.  16  covers  Paul's  thu-d 
missionary  journey,  his  three  years'  resi- 
dence in  Ephesus,  and  his  ministry  in 
Macedonia  and  Greece,  and  finally  car- 
ries the  narrative  to  Troas  again. 

Acts  21.  17 — 28.  16  covers  the  period 
of  Paul's  stay  in  Jerusalem  and  Csesarea, 
with  his  appearance  before  the  Roman 
rulers,  and  the  memorable  voyage  toward 
the  imperial  city. 

Acts  28.  17-31  pictures  the  period  of 
Paul's  two  years'  residence  in  Rome,  dur- 
ing which  time  he  was  mostly  a  prisoner 
in  his  own  hired  house. 

In  such  rapid  strides  Luke  covers  the 
thirty  years  between  the  ascension  of  our 
Lord  and  the  arrival  of  the  apostle  to  the 
Gentiles  in  the  city  of  Rome. 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  81 

The  Acts  is  a  masterful  presentation  of 
the  successive  and  ever  enlarging  scope 
of  the  labors  of  the  apostles.  First  of 
all,  the  gospel  is  so  carried  into  all  Jeru- 
salem that  the  city  of  David  is  finally 
filled  with  their  doctrine;  and  then  the 
good  news  is  spread  abroad  throughout 
all  Judtea  and  Galilee  and  Samaria.  And 
then  only  one  of  the  many  lines  of  Chris- 
tian effort  is  followed,  the  one  line  which 
like  a  trail  of  light  leads  at  last  into  the 
eternal  city  on  the  banks  of  the  Tiber. 
The  many  recorded  events  in  the  Acts 
are  merely  the  recitals  of  the  missionary 
labors  of  the  apostles.  So  the  Acts  is  in 
reality  a  history  of  the  beginnings  of  the 
missionary  enterprise.  There  is  no  mere 
chronicling  of  unusual  events,  but  through- 
out the  entire  book  of  the  Acts  there  is 
such  a  studied  arrangement  of  materials 
as  to  indicate  the  author's  deliberative 
purpose.  From  first  to  last  the  Acts  is 
a  missionary  book. 

"Do  you  teach  missions  in  your  Sunday 
school  class?"  a  thoroughly  representative 
and  skilled  teacher  was  asked  on  a  certain 
Sunday. 


82  NEW  THOUGHTS 

**No,  indeed!"  the  teacher  replied,  with 
rising  indignation;  *T  teach  the  Bible!" 

And  on  that  particular  Sunday  this 
teacher  was  teaching  a  lesson  from  the 
book  of  the  Acts  to  a  class  of  boys  fifteen 
years  of  age!  And  the  lesson  for  that 
Sunday  was  a  portion  of  one  of  Paul's 
missionary  journeys!  Teaching  the  Acts, 
and  yet  not  teaching  missions!  Tracing 
the  journeys  of  the  missionary  Paul  upon 
the  map  of  the  world,  as  he  carried  the 
gospel  from  nation  to  nation,  and  from 
continent  to  continent,  and  yet  not  teach- 
ing missions! 

Since  the  Acts  is  altogether  a  history  of 
the  beginnings  of  the  missionary  enter- 
prise, if  there  had  never  been  a  mission- 
ary enterprise,  why,  of  course,  there  would 
never  have  been  any  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 
Besides  all  that,  the  only  authoritative 
historian  in  the  early  church — Luke,  the 
beloved  physician — was  himself  the  con- 
vert of  a  foreign  missionary.  If  it  had 
not  been  for  the  missionary  enterprise, 
the  world  would  never  have  had  the  Bible 
at  all. 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  83 


CHAPTER  IX 

WHY  THEY  WERE  CALLED 
NAMES 

Antioch  in  Syria  lay  on  the  north  bank 
of  the  river  Orontes,  fifteen  miles  distant 
from  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  Of  the 
great  cities  of  the  Roman  empire,  Rome 
and  Alexandria  alone  excelled  Antioch  in 
prestige  and  in  power.  Antioch  was  the 
capital  of  the  Roman  province  of  SjTia. 
It  had  not  always  been  the  capital  of 
the  country,  for  whenever  the  rulers  from 
the  desert  country  to  the  east  held  sway 
over  the  Syrians  the  capital  was  Damas- 
cus. And  Antioch  owed  her  place  of 
political  preeminence  to  the  fact  that  the 
seat  of  government  lay  now  to  the  west 
and  centered  upon  the  banks  of  the  Tiber. 

It  was  in  Antioch,  rich  and  powerful, 
that  the  gospel  was  preached  to  the  Gen- 
tiles by  the  men  from  Cyprus  and  Cyrene. 
It  was  to  Antioch  that  Barnabas  came, 
with  the  approval  of  the  apostles  in 
Jerusalem.    It  was  in  Antioch  that  Barna- 


84  NEW  THOUGHTS 

has  and  Saul  worked  for  one  year,  and 
then  carried  the  offerings  of  the  church 
in  Antioch  to  the  rehef  of  the  famine 
sufferers  in  Judaea. 

And  it  was  in  this  same  city  of  Antioch 
that  the  disciples  were  first  called  Chris- 
tians. 

The  word  for  "Christian"  is  "Chris- 
tiano."  Among  the  fruits  of  archeological 
research  in  the  Levant  has  been  the 
discovery  of  an  ancient  inscription  which 
bears  the  w^ord,  "Chrestiano."  And  the 
only  difference  between  the  two  words  is 
in  the  third  letter,  where  the  one  word 
has  the  letter  "i"  and  the  other  word 
has  the  letter  "e." 

The  word  "Christiano"  is  derived 
from  the  word  "Christos,"  and  means 
"anointed."     This  is  the  word  for  Christ. 

The  word  "Chrestiano"  is  derived  from 
the  word  "Chrestos,"  and  means  "useful," 
"pleasant,"  and  possessing  those  qualities 
which  are  bound  up  with  the  idea  of 
manageable  and  good. 

In  one  of  the  Roman  historians,  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  Jews  from  Rome  was  ex- 
plained to  be  due  to  the  continual  dis- 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  85 

turbances  in  the  Jewish  quarter  which 
were  occasioned  by  one  Chrestos.  And 
there  can  be  hardly  any  doubt  but  that 
this  is  merely  the  popular  confusion  of 
the  two  words  **Christos"  and  "Chrestos." 

There  is  a  wealth  of  interpretative  mean- 
ing all  bound  up  with  the  suggestion  that 
the  followers  of  the  Christ  may,  at  one 
time  in  the  city  of  Antioch,  have  been 
called  "Chrestians" — the  people  of  the 
good  and  useful  lives.  There  may  be,  in 
this  word,  still  the  recollection  of  the 
charity  which  that  first  missionary  church 
sent  to  relieve  the  suffering  in  a  land  laid 
low  by  famine.  It  is  a  most  notable  pic- 
ture— the  picture  of  the  people  who  were 
so  useful  as  to  be  called  famiharly  by  that 
word  of  gracious  generosity. 

The  word  which  has  lived,  however,  is 
the  word  "Christian,"  first  apphed  to  the 
disciples  of  Jesus  in  the  city  of  Antioch. 
And  it  can  hardly  have  been  given  to  the 
members  of  the  church  in  the  spirit  of 
derision,  for  Antioch  is  one  of  the  relatively 
few  communities  of  that  ancient  world  in 
which  the  church  suffered  httle  or  no 
persecution  at  the  first.    The  word  "Chris- 


86  NEW  THOUGHTS 

tian"  evidently  was  bestowed  upon  the 
believers  in  Antioch  because  of  the  singu- 
lar devotion  which  characterized  them  in 
the  performance  of  their  tasks.  The 
cordial  way  in  which  they  accepted  all 
who  came,  the  preaching  of  the  gospel 
to  the  Gentiles  as  well  as  to  the  Jews, 
their  abounding  charity,  their  love  one 
for  another — all  this  so  reminded  the 
populace  of  the  Christ  the  church  leaders 
preached  about  that  the  common  folks 
distinguished  the  members  of  the  church 
from  the  rest  of  the  people  by  calling  the 
disciples  Christians. 

And  we  later  followers  of  the  Christ 
bear  many  names,  and  yet  the  one  name 
we  all  most  gladly  bear  is  the  name 
"Christian";  and  the  very  name  "Chris- 
tian" comes  to  us  as  a  precious  legacy 
from  the  first  foreign  missionary  church. 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  87 


CHAPTER  X 

NATIVE  SONS  USING  EXCLUSIVELY 
A  FOREIGN  TONGUE 

All  the  books  of  the  New  Testament 
are  written  in  Greek.  And  yet  the  native 
language  of  all  the  authors,  except  one, 
was  Hebrew  or  Aramaic.  Hebrew  was  the 
language  of  Palestine  in  the  early  days 
of  the  Christian  centuries.  How,  then, 
can  we  account  for  the  fact  that  all  the 
books  in  the  New  Testament  were  written 
in  Greek? 

While  Paul  was  born  in  Cilicia,  he  yet 
spoke  Hebrew  as  though  it  had  been  his 
only  mother  tongue.  And,  indeed,  He- 
brew must  have  been  his  mother  tongue, 
for  in  a  home  as  Jewish  as  Paul's  home, 
the  language  of  the  fireside  was  the  lan- 
guage of  the  loved  land  of  Palestine. 

In  the  time  of  Christ  Greek  had  become 
the  language  of  the  market,  but  Hebrew 
still  was  the  language  of  religion.  And  a 
people  with  as  strong  a  racial  conscious- 
ness as  the  Jew  would  too  much  resent  the 
dominance  of  Rome  to  yield  wholly  to 


88  NEW  THOUGHTS 

the  use  of  the  language  of  the  for- 
eigner. 

While  nearly  everybody  used  some 
Greek  in  trade  and  travel,  yet  compara- 
tively few  were  taught  thoroughly  the 
finer  uses  of  the  language.  The  people 
from  distant  lands  who  happened  to  be  in 
Jerusalem  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  per- 
haps knew  some  Greek,  but  if  a  message 
full  of  spiritual  power  and  majesty  is  to 
reach  their  hearts,  that  message  must  be 
delivered  in  the  language  in  which  each 
was  born. 

The  Galilseans  among  the  twelve  apos- 
tles had  exceptional  opportunities  to  mas- 
ter Greek,  for  the  great  trade  routes 
between  the  west  and  the  east  circled 
about  the  Sea  of  Galilee.  The  apostles 
were  chosen  largely  from  the  common 
walks  of  life,  and  they  were  men  whose 
relations  in  the  commercial  world  would 
necessitate  their  use  of  Greek,  since  the 
Grecian  tongue  was  the  great  medium  in 
which  to  buy  and  sell. 

The  Greek  of  the  New  Testament  is 
very  different  from  classical  Greek.  The 
Hebrew  men  who  wrote  in  Greek  wrote 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  89 

not  in  the  language  of  the  school  men, 
but,  rather,  in  the  language  of  the  common 
people,  for  the  Greek  they  knew  was  the 
Greek  which  was  spoken  commonly  on 
the  streets,  in  the  marts  of  trade,  along 
the  highways,  in  the  caravansaries,  and  at 
the  customs. 

For  Galilee  was  Galilee  of  the  Gentiles. 
The  people  of  the  nations  poured  in  cease- 
less streams  along  the  main  routes  of 
travel  which  lay  across  Galilee.  Caper- 
naum, where  Levi  sat  at  the  seat  of  toll, 
was  an  important  gateway,  and  Nazareth 
was  a  familiar  camping  ground  for  the 
passing  caravans. 

The  cumulative  influence  of  the  Greek 
language  upon  the  people  in  Galilee  may 
be  seen  in  the  names  of  two  brothers. 
One  was  called  Symeon  when  he  was 
named  before  the  priest  in  the  synagogue, 
but  in  the  business  world  he  became 
Simon.  When  a  later  son  was  born  he 
was  given  the  Greek  name  of  Andrew. 

And  yet  some  of  the  writers  in  the 
New  Testament  use  very  beautiful  Greek. 
How  does  it  come  that  men  who  so  largely 
gathered  their  Greek  from  seemingly  inci- 


90  NEW  THOUGHTS 

dental  sources  were  able  later  to  command 
such  a  wonderful  mastery  in  literary  style? 
It  should  be  remembered  that  the  more 
highly  cultured  people  traveled  freely,  and 
in  the  simple  plans  for  hospitality  in  that 
land,  they  would  easily  be  accessible  to 
the  people  about  the  lake  who  were  en- 
gaged in  commercial  pursuits. 

Then,  too,  much  of  the  wonder  of  the 
way  the  men  wrote  in  the  New  Testament 
is  due  largely  to  the  ideas  which  they 
had  to  express.  The  thoughts  of  God 
so  illumined  their  minds  that  modes  of 
elegant  expression  became  a  literary  ne- 
cessity. To-day  we  have  the  marvel  of 
a  gypsy  boy,  who  never  went  to  school, 
but  who  because  of  constant  meditation 
upon  the  Word  of  God  has  won  a  com- 
mand of  English  superior  to  most  students 
of  literary  form. 

However,  there  is  one  author  among 
the  many  in  the  New  Testament  whose 
authorship  is  questioned  because  he  ap- 
pears to  write  too  well!  How  did  James 
in  particular  acquire  such  usages  of  Greek 
as  to  enable  him  to  write  so  commendable 
a  piece  of  literature  as  his  epistle?    Come 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  91 

and  see.  And  we  go  apart  into  the  home 
of  a  workingman  in  Nazareth,  for  James 
is  the  oldest  son  of  a  certain  carpenter, 
Joseph  by  name,  and  the  mother  of 
James  is  Mary.  Read  again  the  Mag- 
nificat, and  remember  that  it  is  the 
mother  of  James  who  so  marvelously 
pours  out  her  soul  in  praise  to  God. 
Mary  is  a  woman  of  great  gifts  and  a 
woman  of  rare  literary  skill.  And  growing 
up  in  a  home  like  that,  James  too  would 
receive  splendid  literary  training.  Then 
think  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  his  use  of 
words  and  phrases — so  simple,  so  profound, 
so  beautiful  that  the  common  people  hear 
him  gladly.  And  the  Virgin  Mary  is  the 
mother  of  Jesus.  James  had  exceptional 
advantages  to  acquire  exquisite  literary 
finish  with  Mary  as  his  mother. 

Nevertheless,  Greek  was  always  the 
foreign  tongue  to  the  people  in  Palestine. 
It  was  not  the  language  of  the  rabbis 
in  particular.  It  was  not  the  language 
of  the  priests.  Hebrew  or  Aramaic  was 
the  vernacular  spoken  in  Judaea,  in  Sa- 
maria, and  in  Galilee.  Still  each  province 
had  a  distinctive  dialect.     The  difference 


92  NEW  THOUGHTS 

in  these  various  dialects  was  distinctive 
enough  in  the  case  of  Peter,  for  one  to 
discover  that  he  was  a  Galilsean  by  the 
way  he  spoke.  The  difference  between  the 
Aramaic  as  it  was  spoken  in  Judsea  and 
the  Aramaic  as  it  was  spoken  in  Galilee 
was  so  marked  that  the  people  at  the 
crucifixion  misunderstood  the  Master  when 
he  used  the  language  of  his  childhood  in 
his  agonizing  cry  upon  the  cross. 

Why,  then,  did  the  authors  of  the  New 
Testament  use  Greek  instead  of  Aramaic? 
They  used  Greek  because  Greek  was  the 
universal  language — the  missionary  lan- 
guage. Greek  was  the  language  which 
was  spoken  by  the  people  in  all  the  dif- 
ferent lands  to  which  their  books  would 
go  and  among  whom  their  letters  would 
be  read. 

However,  there  is  the  record  of  one 
book  at  least  which  was  written  in  Aramaic. 
Matthew  wrote  a  Gospel  in  Aramaic — a 
book  which  has  been  lost  altogether.  If 
the  New  Testament  had  all  been  written 
in  Aramaic,  it  might  likewise  have  been 
lost. 

The  language  of  the  New  Testament 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  93 

is  the  language  which  the  apostles  used 
in  their  missionary  labors.  The  books 
which  they  may  have  written  in  any 
other  language  are  not  now  known  among 
men.  The  missionary  enterprise  deter- 
mined the  language  in  which  the  truly 
Christian  Scriptures  should  be  written. 


94  NEW  THOUGHTS 


CHAPTER  XI 

MAP-MAKING  WHICH  WAS 
UNINTENTIONAL 

The  most  conspicuous  markings  upon 
most  maps  of  the  early  Christian  world 
are  the  missionary  journeys  of  the  apostle 
Paul.  And  even  where  these  journeys 
are  not  indicated  by  dotted  lines,  yet 
the  names  of  the  places  and  the  boun- 
daries of  the  nations  are  largely  deter- 
mined by  the  history  which  recounts  his 
missionary  labors.  The  map  of  the  apos- 
toKc  church  is  a  missionary  map.  How- 
ever, if  we  had  the  missionary  labors  of 
all  the  apostles  and  could  indicate  upon 
a  map  of  that  ancient  world  their  extended 
travels,  the  results  would  reveal  the  fact 
that  Paul  was  only  one  among  many 
apostles. 

Moreover,  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  does 
not  cover  the  later  years  of  Paul's  life. 
Still,  we  have  enough  facts  from  his 
abundant  missionary  labors  to  make  the 
map  of  his  day  look  particularly  Pauline. 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  95 

And  yet,  if  we  did  not  have  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles  to  guide  us,  how  utterly 
futile  would  be  all  attempts  to  construct 
a  map  of  the  journeys  of  Paul!  It  is  more 
than  likely  that  the  most  intensely  active 
period  in  Paul's  life  was  the  period  between 
the  two  Roman  imprisonments;  and  yet  no 
one  has  been  able  to  trace  those  important 
missionary  journeys  upon  the  map  of  the 
Roman  world.  Now,  if  we  had  only  Paul's 
letters  and  the  few  references  in  other  litera- 
ture, and  were  without  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  to  direct  us,  we  would  be  all 
at  sea  in  arriving  at  anything  like  a  com- 
plete picture  of  the  missionary  labors  of 
Paul. 

That,  however,  is  the  exact  situation  in 
regard  to  the  other  apostles.  We  follow 
Peter  and  John  for  a  little  while  only  in 
the  Acts;  and  then  we  lose  sight  of  them 
altogether.  For  the  further  labors  of 
these  devoted  apostles  we  are  thrown 
entirely  upon  other  sources.  There  are 
frequent  references  to  the  labors  of  the 
apostles  in  many  lands,  but  there  is  not 
now  any  possibility  of  constructing  con- 
nected journeys  such  as  we  are  fortunate 


96  NEW  THOUGHTS 

in  possessing  for  the  great  apostle  to  the 
Gentiles. 

Consider  the  case  of  Matthew  as  an 
illustration  of  our  great  loss  in  not  possess- 
ing a  complete  story  of  the  first  founding 
of  the  Christian  Church  in  ever  so  many 
of  those  ancient  lands.  There  sift  through 
the  literature  of  those  early  days  frequent 
references  to  the  missionary  labors  of  this 
pubhcan  among  the  apostles.  These  nu- 
merous references  associate  the  name  of 
Matthew  with  many  mission  fields.  These 
fields  are  so  numerous  that  one  late 
writer  says  that  Matthew  is  supposed  to 
have  gone  to  every  known  and  to  some 
unknown  lands!  And  from  that  he  is 
inclined  to  argue  that  possibly  Matthew 
did  not  go  to  any  land.  Perhaps  a  sim- 
ilar observation  might  have  been  made 
as  to  the  extended  travels  of  the  apostle 
Paul,  if  it  did  not  happen  that  we  have 
the  Acts  in  which  are  presented  PauFs 
progressive  journeys  and  labors  in  an 
orderly  form.  Since  the  name  of  Matthew 
is  seen  in  connection  with  such  a  large 
number  of  different  fields,  it  appears  to 
be  the  most  reasonable  conclusion  that 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  97 

Matthew  doubtless  was  a  widely  traveled 
missionary.  And  is  not  that  exactly  what 
one  might  be  led  to  expect  from  a  man 
who  lived  for  long  years  upon  the  main 
routes  of  overland  travel,  and  who  must 
have  formed  friendships  with  travelers 
from  many  lands? 

If  the  further  knowledge  of  the  mis- 
sionary labors  of  only  one  out  of  the 
many  apostles  makes  the  map  of  the 
early  Christian  world  appear  like  a  suc- 
cessive series  of  missionary  journeys,  what 
a  missionary  map  we  would  possess  were 
we  able  to  trace  with  equal  accuracy  all 
the  missionary  journeys  of  the  other 
apostles ! 


98  NEW  THOUGHTS 

CHAPTER  Xn 

WHEN  CHARITY  BEGAN  AT  HOME 

The  first  five  chapters  of  the  Acts  is 
filled  with  the  thrilling  story  of  the  great 
progress  of  the  gospel  in  Jerusalem.  With 
increasing  joy  the  apostles  are  teaching 
and  bringing  good  tidings  of  Jesus  as  the 
Christ.  It  is  a  scene  of  compelling  loveli- 
ness. True  there  have  been  scourgings 
and  many  petty  persecutions,  but  what 
of  that!  For  through  it  all  the  number 
of  the  disciples  is  multiplying,  and  the 
interest  is  deepening  on  every  hand. 

Then  suddenly  the  storm  breaks!  It 
is  not  the  outburst  of  a  fierce  persecution 
on  the  part  of  the  public  authorities. 
It  is  nothing  from  the  outside  at  all. 
It  is,  rather,  the  explosion  of  a  growing 
discontent  on  the  inside.  And  the  record 
reads:  "There  arose  a  murmuring  of  the 
Hellenists  against  the  Hebrews,  because 
their  widows  were  neglected  in  the  daily 
ministration."  Earlier  still  stand  the 
words,   "And  all  that  believed  were  to- 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  99 

gether,  and  had  all  things  common,"  "for 
neither  was  there  among  them  any  that 
lacked,  for  as  many  as  were  possessors  of 
lands  or  houses  sold  them,  and  .  .  .  dis- 
tribution was  made  unto  each,  according 
as  any  one  had  need." 

But  now  it  is  the  Hellenists  who  are 
opposed  to  the  Hebrews — the  Hellenists 
murmuring  because  their  widows  are  ne- 
glected in  the  daily  ministration.  Hellen- 
ists against  Hebrews — and  the  apostles 
are  all  Hebrews! 

The  wonderful  way  in  which  the  apostles 
meet  this  first  great  crisis  in  the  early 
church  shows  the  value  of  their  practical 
training  in  the  commercial  world  before 
they  became  apostles,  and  is  ample  justifi- 
cation forever  of  their  selection  to  the 
apostolate.  They  call  together  all  the 
multitude  of  the  disciples,  and  place  the 
selection  of  the  seven  deacons  for  the 
better  caring  of  the  charity  of  the  church 
into  the  hands  of  the  entire  body  of 
believers.  And  Luke  says  that  this  sug- 
gestion of  the  apostles  pleased  the  whole 
multitude.  The  disciples  met  the  mur- 
muring   of    the    Hellenists    by    choosing 


100  NEW  THOUGHTS 

seven  men;  and  judging  by  the  names  of 
the  seven  so  chosen  they  chose  all 
Hellenists! 

This  first  serious  problem  in  the  early 
church  was  a  missionary  problem.  All 
the  embarrassments  of  differences  in  train- 
ing and  of  racial  antipathies  may  be  seen 
in  this  swift  alignment  of  the  foreign 
born  against  the  native  Jew  in  the  old 
homeland.  And  so  soon  as  there  was 
the  slightest  occasion  which  might  war- 
rant it,  immediately  there  are  the  parties 
— Hellenist  against  Hebrew. 

The  wise  decision  of  the  apostles  in- 
augurated a  new  day  in  church  adminis- 
tration. This  was  their  first  lesson  in 
becoming  all  things  to  all  men  that  they 
might  by  any  means  save  some.  And 
the  whole  multitude  became  as  Hellenist 
to  the  Hellenists,  and  saw  the  issue  so 
clearly  from  the  viewpoint  of  the  Grecian 
Jews  that  the  crowd  of  believers  appear 
to  have  selected  seven  Hellenists  to  care 
for  the  matter  in  hand. 

And  that  question  was  settled  for  all 
time,  because  in  granting  representation  to 
the  neglected  group  the  disciples  removed 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  101 

forever  any  suspicion  of  partiality  in  ad- 
ministration. They  set  a  precedent  it 
would  be  well  for  all  mankind  to  follow 
clear  through  to  the  end  of  the  days. 

Both  parties  to  that  first  dispute  have 
long  since  been  gathered  to  their  fathers, 
and  yet  the  principle  upon  which  they 
registered  their  decision  is  applicable  to 
all  mission  fields  to-day.  For  it  is  notable 
that  the  first  question  of  administration 
to  arise  in  the  apostolic  church  was  a 
question  which  grew  out  of  the  missionary 
labors  of  the  early  church. 


102  NEW  THOUGHTS 


CHAPTER  XIII 

ONE  CONFERENCE  THAT  REGIS- 
TERED A  DECISION 

If  a  Gentile  should  desire  to  become 
a  Christian,  must  the  Gentile  first  become 
a  Jew? 

To  appreciate  this  historical  situation 
in  the  apostolic  church  at  anything  like 
its  true  value  it  must  be  remembered  that 
there  was  a  wonderful  advantage  in  be- 
ing a  Jew,  for  to  the  Jew  had  been  in- 
trusted "the  oracles  of  God."  What  a 
magnificent  racial  heritage  is  bound  up 
in  so  simple  a  saying,  "the  oracles  of 
God"!  That  was  a  treasure  of  value 
beyond  the  measure  of  the  mind  of  man. 
God  had  spoken  to  their  Jewish  fore- 
fathers through  the  prophets  and  in  the 
services  of  the  sanctuary,  so  that  truly 
to  be  a  Jew  was  to  be  the  possessor  of 
a  goodly  inheritance. 

And  in  the  light  of  the  greater  distinc- 
tion which  belonged  primarily  to  the  Jew, 
we  need  not  wonder  that  the  controversy 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  103 

over  the  equal  admittance  of  Gentiles  to 
Christian  fellowship  should  occasion  a  con- 
troversy of  such  stupendous  proportions. 

Barnabas  and  Paul  returned  to  Antioch 
upon  the  completion  of  their  first  mis- 
sionary journey.  In  recounting  the  truly 
remarkable  things  which  had  been  done, 
they  told  how  God  had  opened  the  door 
of  faith  unto  the  Gentiles.  And  as  these 
pioneer  missionaries  of  the  Christ  "tarried 
no  little  time  with  the  disciples  in  Antioch, 
certain  men  came  down  from  Judsea,  and 
taught  the  brethren,  saying.  Except  ye 
be  circumcised  after  the  custom  of  Moses, 
ye  cannot  be  saved." 

Hitherto  most  of  the  opposition  to  the 
first  missionaries  had  been  from  outside 
the  Christian  community.  But  hereafter 
the  intensest  opposition  to  the  missionary 
enterprise  is  to  come  almost  wholly  from 
inside  the  group  of  believers. 

In  Antioch  the  gospel  was  first  pro- 
claimed to  Gentiles,  and  again  in  Antioch 
the  call  of  God  came  for  the  beginning 
of  the  missionary  enterprise  which  should 
carry  the  gospel  to  all  Gentiles.  These 
significant    events    were    soon    known    in 


104  NEW  THOUGHTS 

Judaea,  and  later  when  the  first  mission- 
aries returned  to  tell  the  splendid  success 
which  had  attended  their  labors,  the 
report  of  the  acceptance  of  the  gospel 
by  the  Gentiles  aroused  the  apprehension 
of  the  Judaizing  party  in  the  homeland, 
and  certain  men  from  among  them  came 
to  Antioch  to  oppose  and  hinder  this 
missionary  tendency  in  the  apostolic 
church. 

The  question  of  the  right  of  the  Gen- 
tiles to  the  fullness  of  redemption  by  faith 
in  Christ  Jesus  alone  is  carried  to  the 
apostles  and  elders  in  Jerusalem.  And 
this  controversy  concerned  Christianity  it- 
self. For  that  conference  of  the  apostles 
and  the  elders,  with  the  company  of 
behevers  in  Jerusalem,  largely  determined 
by  their  decision  whether  Christianity 
should  be  a  universal  or  a  provincial 
religion. 

And  the  missionaries  Barnabas  and  Paul 
return  again  to  Antioch,  having  won  a 
notable  victory  in  the  conference  at 
Jerusalem.  The  law  of  circumcision  is  not 
to  be  held  as  binding  upon  a  Gentile. 
A  Gentile  may  become  a  Christian  with- 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  105 

out  first  becoming  a  Jew.  Christianity  is 
to  be  a  universal  religion. 

Yet  our  rejoicing  is  premature.  It  is 
true  that  the  apostles  and  the  elders 
decided  that  the  law  of  Moses  was  not  to 
hold  in  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  to  the 
Gentiles.  But,  for  all  that,  the  conflict 
over  the  Judaizing  tendency  raged  so 
fiercely  in  every  mission  field,  and  the 
pressure  of  the  "back  to  Moses  movement" 
was  sufficiently  strong  even  in  Hberal 
Antio<::h  to  carrv^  Peter  entirely  with  it, 
and  to  lead  Barnabas  into  a  compromising 
position. 

But  how  did  it  ever  come  about  that 
this  question  in  regard  to  circumcision 
for  the  Gentiles  was  ever  raised  in  the 
first  place  .^  The  entire  controversy  grew 
out  of  the  acti\aty  of  the  two  men  whom 
the  church  at  Antioch  sent  as  mission- 
aries to  the  needy  world.  Neither  Bar- 
nabas nor  Paul  hoped  to  save  the  world 
by  winning  the  Gentile  and  losing  the 
Jew.  Their  ministr^^  was  always  to  the 
Jew  first,  and  then  to  the  Gentile.  It 
was  only  in  the  end  of  the  days,  and  after 
the  fiercest  struggles,  and  under  the  in- 


106  NEW  THOUGHTS 

tensest  opposition,  that  Paul  finally  turned 
away  from  his  hope  of  winning  the  Jew 
and  devoted  himself  completely  to  his 
mission  to  the  Gentile. 

Why,  then,  did  this  bitter,  age-long, 
never-tiring  controversy  arise  in  the  early 
church? 

This  question  grew  naturally  out  of  the 
wide  extension  of  the  gospel  invitation 
to  include  the  needy  in  all  lands.  It  was 
inevitable  that  this  controversy  should 
arise  out  of  the  missionary  labors  of 
Barnabas  and  Paul.  And  in  the  discus- 
sion at  that  early  conference  of  the  leaders 
in  Jerusalem  we  have  the  first  declaration 
of  the  apostles  in  matters  of  missionary 
procedure. 

In  an  analysis  of  the  controversies 
which  were  serious  enough  to  find  a 
place  in  the  annals  of  the  lives  and  the 
labors  of  the  apostles  we  discover  that  all 
questions  of  extended  discussion  in  the 
early  church  were  matters  which  related 
alone  to  the  missionary  enterprise. 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  107 


CHAPTER  XIV 

STRANGE  TRAVELERS  VENTUR- 
ING  ON  NEW  TRAILS 

In  the  opening  days  of  the  public  minis- 
try of  our  Lord  some  obscure  men  became 
disciples.  These  men  were  gathered  in 
what  appears  to  be  a  purely  incidental 
way  in  the  beginning.  A  mighty  move- 
ment for  social  justice,  as  well  as  for 
religion,  was  led  by  John  the  Baptist, 
and  a  few  of  these  first-chosen  disciples 
had  been  in  the  company  of  John. 

Then  one  day  the  Son  of  man  came; 
and  as  Jesus  passed  by,  John  bore  such 
gracious  testimony  to  him  that  two  of 
his  disciples  left  John  and  followed  Jesus. 
One  of  these  two  found  his  own  brother 
and  brought  him  to  Jesus.  And  the  day 
after,  Jesus  spoke  to  another;  and  upon 
his  becoming  a  disciple,  he  told  a  friend 
of  his;  and  this  friend  likewise  became  a 
disciple. 

Thus  the  circle  widened,  and  soon 
crowds  of  people  were  following  the  Christ. 


108 


NEW  THOUGHTS 


And  out  of  all  the  vast  throng  of  people, 
the  Master  chose  twelve  disciples  in  par- 
ticular that  they  might  be  with  him. 
And  Jesus  called  the  twelve  so  chosen 
apostles.  There  are  four  complete  lists 
of  the  names  of  the  twelve  given  in  the 
New  Testament: 


Matt.  10.  2-4 

Marks.  10-19 

LuKB  6.  14-16 

Acts  1.  13 

Peteb 

Peter 

Peter 

Peteb 

Andrew 

James 

Andrew 

John 

James 

John 

James 

James 

John 

Andrew 

John 

Andrew 

Philip 

Philip 

Philip 

Philip 

Bartholomew 

Bartholomew 

Bartholomew 

Thomas 

Thomas 

Matthew 

Matthew 

Bartholomew 

Matthew 

Thomas 

Thomas 

Matthew 

James   son  of 

James  son  of 

James  son  of 

James  son  of 

Alph^us 

Alph^tjs 

ALPH.EU3 

Alph^us 

Thadd<eu8 

THADDiEUS 

Simon  the 

Simon  the 

Simon  the 

Simon  the 

Zealot 

Zealot 

Canan^an 

Canan^an 

Judas  son  of 

Judas  son  o» 

Judas  Iscariot 

Judas  Iscariot 

James 

Jambs. 

WHO  ALSO  BE- 

WHO ALSO  BE- 

Judas Iscariot 

TRAYED  HIM. 

TRAYED  HIM. 

WHO  became 

A  TRAITOR. 

A  comparison  of  these  four  lists  of  the 
twelve  apostles  leads  to  the  discovery  of 
the  apparent  omission  of  one  name  from 
the  group  and  the  seeming  addition  of 
another  name. 

In  John's  Gospel  Nathanael  appears  as 
one  of  the  twelve.  It  is  probable  that 
Nathanael   is   the   other   name   for   Bar- 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  109 

tholomew.  In  the  conversation  with  Peter, 
Jesus  addresses  him  as  Simon,  son  of 
Jonah;  and  this  might  be  written  Simon 
Barjonah.  Likewise  the  name  of  Na- 
than ael  might  well  be  Nathanael  Bartal- 
mai.  It  is  quite  probable  that  these  two 
words,  Nathanael  Bartholomew,  together 
form  the  full  name  for  that  disciple  in 
whom  Jesus  said  there  was  no  guile. 

The  name  of  Judas  son  of  James  has 
all  the  appearance  of  being  an  additional 
name.  But  now  Bible  students  generally 
regard  Thaddseus  and  Judas  son  of  James 
as  the  names  of  one  person. 

Eleven  of  the  twelve  were  Galilseans, 
while  only  one  of  the  entire  group  was  a 
Judaean. 

To  these  men  Jesus  gave  the  command 
to  go  into  all  the  world.  To  what  extent 
did  they  obey  this  command  of  their  Lord.^ 

It  is  an  all  too  frequent  lament  that 
there  are  so  few  workers  in  the  church. 
But  it  was  far  otherwise  in  the  apostoHc 
church.  In  those  early  days  there  appear 
to  have  been  too  few  writers  of  permanent 
records.  They  did  not  lack  for  workers 
in   the   early    Christian    Church.      Their 


110  NEW  THOUGHTS 

need,  as  we  realize  it  to-day,  was  the 
dire  necessity  for  writers  of  history. 
"Would  that  there  had  been  enough  Lukes 
for  each  of  the  twelve  apostles  to  have 
had  his  own  historian! 

The  apostles  were  first  given  the  task 
of  the  evangelization  of  Jerusalem  and 
the  rest  of  the  land  of  Palestine.  They 
gave  themselves  to  this  engrossing  bit  of 
labor  with  such  holy  abandon  that  they 
largely  accomplished  this  most  difficult 
task  in  a  few  brief  years. 

There  were  peculiar  claims  which  the 
very  land  of  Palestine  would  make  upon 
their  lives.  It  was  home,  and  the  love 
of  the  native  homeland  was  deeply  rooted 
in  a  Jew.  Who  can  stand  unmoved  be- 
side the  canals  in  Babylon  and  look  upon 
the  Hebrew  exiles  as  they  weep  at  the 
remembrance  of  their  native  land?  And 
who  that  has  heard  in  imagination  the 
wail  of  the  singers  can  ever  forget  the 
utter  despair  in  the  pathos  of  their  words, 

"If  I  forget  thee,  O  Jerusalem, 

Let  my  right  hand  forget  her  skill. 

Let  my  tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of 
my  mouth." 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  111 

If  the  land  of  Israel  meant  so  much 
to  the  Jew  in  the  days  of  the  captivity, 
notwithstanding  all  the  horrors  of  the 
dark  days  of  oppression  and  misrule, 
what  must  have  been  the  wealth  of  mean- 
ing in  the  land  of  Palestine  to  the  twelve 
apostles  through  the  w^onderful  associa- 
tions which  grew  out  of  their  fellowship 
with  the  Master!  The  occupations  of  the 
people,  the  birds  of  the  air,  the  flowers 
of  the  field,  the  roadside,  the  sky,  the 
lake,  the  city,  the  poor,  the  sick,  the 
homes,  the  leaven,  the  fishing,  the  sowing, 
the  reaping — every  moment  of  every  day 
would  be  vested  with  some  exceedingly 
precious  memorj^  and  suggestive  of  the 
words  and  of  the  work  of  the  Master. 
Their  intimate  associations  with  the  Mas- 
ter deepened  a  thousandfold  every  loving 
desire  for  the  land  of  their  birth. 

How  far,  then,  did  these  twelve  Jews 
whom  Jesus  called  to  be  apostles — how  far 
did  they  obey  the  command  of  Christ 
to  go  into  all  the  world  and  to  make 
disciples  of  all  the  nations? 

The  Master  bade  these  lovers  of  their 
native    land    to    begin    from    Jerusalem. 


112  NEW  THOUGHTS 

That  was  a  service  of  such  genuine  joy 
as  to  make  them  glad  even  when  they 
were  afflicted  with  sore  persecutions. 

The  Master  bade  these  men,  whose  love 
for  their  homeland  was  greatly  intensified 
by  the  love  of  their  Saviour,  to  evangelize 
all  Judsea  and  Samaria.  That,  too,  was 
an  undertaking  of  supreme  delight. 

The  Master  bade  these  men  to  witness 
for  him  unto  the  uttermost  part  of  the 
earth.     Did  they  do  it? 

1.  "The  first  Peter"  is  the  way  Matthew 
begins  his  list  of  the  twelve.  And  Peter's 
name  is  always  in  the  lead.  His  name 
was  Symeon,  but  in  business  life  "Symeon" 
became  "Simon."  The  later  use  of  the 
name  "Symeon"  on  rare  occasions  adds  a 
certain  charm  to  studies  which  are  appre- 
ciative of  the  finer  associations  that  are 
bound  up  with  early  life.  And  one  day 
Simon  met  his  Lord,  and  once  again  his 
name  is  changed,  and  he  is  called  Petros, 
and  it  means  "Rock."  And  "Peter"  is 
a  new  name.  It  is  unlike  anybody  else's. 
And  so  he  will  be  remembered  as  Peter 
for  all  time. 

Peter  was  a  ffreat  traveler.    He  is  seen 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  113 

in  the  task  of  evangelizing  the  villages 
among  the  Samaritans,  and  on  other 
journeys  which  take  him  to  Joppa 
and  Caesarea.  Peter  was  in  Syria,  Pon- 
tus,  Galatia,  Cappadocia,  Bithynia,  Asia, 
Babylonia,  Greece,  and  Rome.  In  these 
countries  surely,  and  in  many  other  lands 
most  probably,  Peter  bore  witness  to  the 
saving  grace  which  had  come  to  all  men 
through  Jesus  Christ. 

2.  "And  Andrew."  It  reads  like  that 
always.  He  is  forever  "and  Andrew." 
He  never  appears  alone.  He  is  always 
in  company  with  somebody  else.  In  the 
four  Hsts  of  the  apostles,  the  name  of 
Andrew  is  continually  coupled  with  the 
name  of  another. 

Andrew  is  Knked  with  the  missionary 
enterprise  which  led  in  the  spread  of  the 
gospel  to  the  north  and  northwest  of  the 
homeland.  He  was  a  part  of  the  move- 
ment which  enlarged  the  Christian  bor- 
ders in  Syria,  Galatia,  Pontus,  Scythia, 
and  the  coast  country  of  the  Black  Sea. 
His  further  labors  were  in  Thracia,  Mace- 
donia, and  Achaia. 

Andrew  was  so  constant  in  his  devo- 


114  NEW  THOUGHTS 

tion  to  his  Master,  and  so  diligent  in 
prosecuting  the  work  of  the  Lord,  that 
his  persecutors  invented  a  new  instru- 
ment of  cruel  torture  with  which  to 
wreak  upon  this  missionary  of  the  Christ 
their  unholy  will.  Then  when  you  are 
tempted  to  think  of  Andrew  as  only  a 
shadow  of  his  older  brother,  take  another 
look  at  the  Saint  Andrew's  cross;  and 
remember  what  sacrificing  personal  obedi- 
ence to  Jesus  Christ  lies  behind  that 
emblem  upon  which  "and  Andrew"  paid 
the  last  full  measure  of  devotion  to  his 
Lord. 

3.  James  is  first  known  as  the  son 
of  Zebedee,  and  he  is  later  known  as  the 
brother  of  John.  Blessed  father  of  two 
so  great  sons!  The  father  had  high  hopes 
for  his  sons.  The  attitude  of  the  family 
is  reflected  in  the  mother's  eager  longing 
that  the  two  so  worthy  sons  might  occupy 
the  chief  seats  in  the  coming  kingdom  of 
God.  And  the  two  sons  were  called 
"sons  of  thunder."  They  had  initiative, 
and  they  were  both  influential. 

To  James  fell  the  choice  of  the  apostles 
to   be   recognized   as   the   leader   of   the 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  115 

church  in  Jerusalem.  While  Peter  was 
the  spokesman  in  the  early  days  of  the 
first  ministry  in  Jerusalem,  yet  there  is 
warrant  for  believing  that  the  head  of 
the  Jerusalem  church  was  always  some  one 
other  than  the  man  who  is  named  first 
in  the  hsts  of  the  apostles.  James  evi- 
dently pressed  the  campaign  in  Jerusalem 
with  great  vigor,  for  in  some  way  he  in- 
curred the  special  displeasure  of  Herod 
the  king.  He  was  beheaded  for  the  sole 
reason  that  he  was  the  acknowledged  head 
of  the  church. 

4.  John  is  the  disciple  whom  Jesus 
loved.  To  John  the  Master  gave  the 
charge  to  sustain  his  virgin  mother. 
John  came  very  young  into  the  circle  of 
the  twelve.  Yet  Peter  and  John  were 
the  inseparables.  Peter  and  John  were 
side  by  side  at  the  Last  Supper,  and  they 
ran  together  to  the  empty  tomb  on  the 
first  Easter  morning.  Peter  and  John 
walk  together  toward  the  temple  at  the 
hour  of  prayer,  and  their  association  is 
so  constant  that  the  apostles  send  them 
on  the  errand  for  the  supervision  of  the 
newly  opened  mission  fields  of  Samaria; 


116  NEW  THOUGHTS 

and  Peter  and  John  together  promote  the 
evangeHzation  of  the  villages  of  the 
Samaritans. 

John  traveled  extensively  in  missionary 
labors,  and,  after  visiting  Rome  and  many 
other  places,  fixed  his  residence  per- 
manently in  the  city  of  Ephesus. 

Two  especially  fine  stories  come  drift- 
ing down  the  centuries  from  the  days  of 
John's  residence  in  Ephesus.  One  story 
is  an  echo  of  the  heated  debate  John  had 
had  with  Cerinthus,  the  arch  heretic  in 
John's  estimation.  And  the  story  tells 
how  John  walked  one  day  into  the  public 
baths,  and  there  he  saw  Cerinthus — and 
turning  quickly  upon  his  heels  John  walks 
swiftly  from  the  baths  and  down  the 
street.  This  is  the  same  John  we  know 
as  one  of  the  "sons  of  thunder."  And 
it  is  a  delight  to  know  that  he  is  coming 
along  in  years  with  his  natural  force 
unabated. 

The  other  story  completes  the  picture. 
John  is  too  old  now  to  walk  alone,  and 
the  young  men  carry  him  to  the  services 
of  grace,  and  John  says  a  single  word 
that  would  make  him  to  be  known  any- 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  117 

where;  for  he  says,  "Little  children,  love 
one  another." 

So  we  take  our  leave  of  the  apostle 
of  love.  We  saw  him  leaning  on  the 
bosom  of  the  Master,  and  now  we  find 
him  leaning  upon  the  shoulders  of  the 
young  men  in  Ephesus,  while  underneath 
him  are  the  everlasting  anns. 

5.  Philip  was  a  fellow  townsman  of 
Peter  and  Andrew.  Aside  from  the  naming 
of  the  twelve,  Philip  appears  only  in  the 
Gospel  of  John.  Philip  shared  with  the 
rest  of  the  apostles  in  the  evangelization 
of  the  homeland  of  Palestine,  and  then 
he  too  went  into  foreign  fields.  He  is  sup- 
posed to  have  aided  in  the  evangelization 
of  Lydia,  Phrygia,  Asia,  Parthia,  and  Gala- 
tia.  His  zeal  for  Christ  carried  him  as  far 
as  Athens,  and  later  he  returned  to  become 
the  leader  of  the  church  in  Hierapolis. 

6.  Nathanael  Bartholomew  owes  his 
call  to  the  friendship  of  Philip.  The  ties 
of  friendship  are  often  closer  than  the 
ties  of  kinship;  and  there  is  a  Friend  that 
sticketh  closer  than  a  brother.  And 
Philip  knew  that  kind  of  a  Friend,  and  he 
wanted  Nathanael  to  know  him  too. 


118  NEW  THOUGHTS 

Along  with  the  rest  of  the  apostles 
Nathanael  participated  in  the  abundant 
missionary  labors  incident  to  the  evan- 
gelization of  the  homeland — the  first  stage 
in  the  Master's  program  for  the  complete 
evangelization  of  the  whole  world.  Na- 
thanael is  supposed  to  have  followed  the 
line  most  frequently  traveled  between 
Jerusalem  and  Antioch  in  Syria,  and  to 
have  labored  in  Syria,  and  Armenia,  and 
Pontus,  and  Scythia,  and  the  coast  coun- 
try of  the  Black  Sea.  In  addition  to  the 
provinces  in  Asia  Minor,  Nathanael  is 
thought  to  have  made  a  missionary  jour- 
ney into  India  before  his  final  location 
as  the  settled  apostle  to  Armenia. 

7.  Thomas  is  a  famous  illustration  of 
how  a  partial  view  of  a  man's  life  may 
be  an  altogether  false  view  of  the  man 
as  he  really  is.  There  are  three  scenes  in 
the  friendship  of  Thomas  for  Jesus  which 
ought  always  to  be  taken  together.  Jesus 
is  some  distance  from  Judaea  with  his 
disciples  when  the  news  comes  of  the 
serious  illness  of  Lazarus.  At  that  time 
the  organized  opposition  was  so  strong 
that    it   might   mean    instant    death    for 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  119 

Jesus  and  his  friends  to  work  in  Judaea 
at  all.  And  the  Master  proposes  a  re- 
turn to  the  very  land  in  which  his  life 
will  be  placed  in  immediate  danger.  The 
disciples  tried  to  dissuade  Jesus  from 
risking  his  life  by  a  return  to  the  environs 
of  Jerusalem,  but  the  Master  will  go.  And 
then  Thomas,  thoughtful  but  resolute,  says, 
"Let  us  also  go,  that  we  may  die  with  him." 

There  was  that  same  determined  spirit 
in  the  question  which  Thomas  asked  at 
the  Last  Supper — the  question  in  which 
Thomas  inquired  for  the  way  along  which 
the  Master  was  about  to  go;  for  wherever 
the  way  led,  Thomas  was  prepared  to 
follow  his  Lord. 

The  desire  on  the  part  of  Thomas  for 
the  proof  of  the  resurrection  was  exactly 
similar  to  the  demands  which  were  made 
by  the  other  apostles.  They  too  had  all 
been  satisfied  with  evidence  of  the  Lord's 
rising  from  the  tomb,  and  Thomas  would 
be  satisfied  likewise.  The  confession  of 
Thomas,  "My  Lord  and  my  God,"  is  one 
of  the  grandest  confessions  ever  framed 
by  human  lips. 

In  the  selection,  or  it  may  be  in  the 


120  NEW  THOUGHTS 

assignment,  of  missionary  fields,  the  work 
for  Thomas  lay  to  the  north  and  east- 
ward, and  he  first  works  among  the 
Parthians  in  the  country  south  of  the 
Caspian  Sea.  Then  came  the  call  to  India. 
But  the  way  to  India  was  all  hedged 
about — the  barriers  were  insuperable.  The 
common  ways  of  travel  were  closed.  In 
the  midst  of  his  distress  Thomas  has  a 
vision  of  his  risen  and  reigning  Lord;  and 
now,  under  the  inspiration  of  that  vision 
of  the  Christ,  Thomas  sells  himself  as  a 
slave  to  a  merchant  of  India  in  order  that 
he  might  reach  the  destination  of  his 
mission  field. 

8.  Matthew  the  publican — a  new  name 
for  a  man  with  an  old  relation.  Levi  sat 
at  the  seat  of  toll  as  Jesus  passed  by  and 
called  him,  and  Levi  arose  from  the 
customs  oflfice,  and  Matthew  followed 
Jesus.  And  Levi  the  taxgatherer  is  Mat- 
thew to  the  Christians  forever. 

In  his  missionary  labors  Matthew  is 
represented  as  journeying  to  many  lands. 
All  the  provinces  of  Asia  Minor  are  in- 
cluded in  his  lists  of  missionary  fields. 
The  territory  lying  between  the  Black  Sea 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  121 

and  the  coast  of  India  is  reckoned  as 
coming  under  the  evangehzing  influence 
of  this  pubHcan  among  the  disciples. 

9.  James  the  son  of  Alphseus  is  men- 
tioned in  the  Hsts  of  the  apostles.  No- 
where else  in  the  New  Testament  is  there 
any  reference  to  him,  except,  of  course, 
as  he  is  naturally  included  in  the  re- 
markable labors  of  the  apostles  through- 
out the  earlier  chapters  of  the  Acts.  The 
name  of  James,  the  son  of  Alphseus, 
occupies  a  position  of  prominence  in  the 
list  of  the  twelve,  since  his  name  always 
stands  at  the  head  of  the  third  group  of 
fours  into  which  the  apostoHc  group  is 
divided.  His  foreign  missionary  labors 
are  thought  to  extend  to  the  south  of 
Judaea,  reaching  into  Egypt,  and  extend- 
ing finally  into  the  north  of  Africa. 

10.  The  confusion  of  the  three  names 
for  the  one  apostle  is  gradually  becoming 
clear.  The  more  modern  study  of  the 
Greek  text  has  eliminated  the  reading  Leb- 
bseus  in  Matthew,  so  there  are  now  only  the 
two  forms — Thaddseus  and  Judas,  the  son 
of  James.  These  two  names  are  identified 
as  belonging  to  this  particular  disciple. 


122  NEW  THOUGHTS 

Thaddseus  is  thought  to  have  gone  first 
of  all  to  the  eastern  countries,  and  his 
name  is  associated  with  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  the  lands  of  Parthia,  Mesopo- 
tamia, and  Babylonia.  He  is  generally 
thought  to  have  made  Edessa  a  center  for 
evangelization,  and  to  have  penetrated  as 
far  as  India.  He  is  also  thought  to  have 
been  a  missionary  to  Africa,  for  one  of 
the  well-founded  traditions  in  the  early 
church  pictures  him  as  having  mastered 
an  African  language  in  order  that  he 
might  preach  the  gospel  on  that  continent. 

11.  Simon  the  Canansean  presents  a 
study  of  enthusing  interest.  In  several 
of  the  lists  of  the  twelve  he  is  spoken  of 
as  Simon  the  Zealot.  The  Cananaeans 
were  a  popular  body  of  progressives  in 
the  early  days  of  the  Christian  era.  And 
Simon  joined  the  Cananaeans.  He  soon 
found,  however,  something  far  better  in 
the  call  of  the  Christ.  But  Simon  brought 
over  into  his  new  allegiance  the  same 
intense  feeling  which  impelled  him  to 
cast  in  his  lot  with  the  political  enthusi- 
asts. Simon  left  the  crowd,  but  he  never 
lost  out  of  his  life  the  enthusiasm  which 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  123 

carried  him  into  the  progressive  move- 
ment. And  so  to  the  end  of  the  days 
he  was  always  known  as  the  Cananaean. 

It  might  naturally  be  supposed  that 
one  so  earnest,  so  enthusiastic,  so  full  of 
zeal  and  power,  would  go  to  great  lengths 
in  his  missionary  service.  Simon  the 
Canansean's  field  of  labor  ran  to  the 
east,  and  then  north  and  south,  stretch- 
ing all  the  way  from  the  Mediterranean 
to  the  Euphrates,  and  beyond;  and  from 
the  shores  of  the  Caspian  Sea  clear  to 
India.  Following  his  work  as  an  itinerant 
missionary,  Simon  settled  later  in  Egypt. 

To  what  extent,  then,  did  the  twelve 
seek  to  carry  out  the  command  of  Christ 
to  go  into  all  the  world  and  make  dis- 
ciples of  all  the  nations? 

The  briefest  survey  of  the  missionary 
labors  of  these  heroic  souls  is  sufficient 
to  attest  the  full  obedience  which  they 
rendered  to  their  Master's  great  command. 
And  out  of  the  missionary  labors  of  the 
apostolic  church  grew  the  books  of  the 
New  Testament.  If  it  had  not  been  for 
the  missionary  enterprise,  the  world  would 
never  have  had  the  Bible  at  all. 


124  NEW  THOUGHTS 


CHAPTER  XV 

FALLEN  HERALDS  WHO  LIE  IN 
FOREIGN  LANDS 

The  life  story  of  eleven  out  of  the 
twelve  apostles  is  full  of  fascination.  So 
mightily  did  they  witness  to  Jesus  Christ 
that  they  soon  filled  all  Jerusalem  with 
their  doctrine.  Then  the  circle  widens. 
Samaria  is  touched;  and  then  the  interest 
grows,  and  all  Judsea  feels  the  thrill  of  a 
purer  life;  and  then  Galilee;  and  then  on 
to  Syria,  and  then  south,  and  east,  and 
north,  and  finally  west  run  the  lines  of 
light,  and  on  these  broadening  lines  of 
light  we  find  an  apostle  carrying  the 
message  of  the  world's  Redeemer. 

The  apostles  wrought  so  magnificently 
that  within  a  single  generation  the  utter- 
most part  of  their  known  world  had  heard 
the  glad  tidings  of  the  Son  of  God  who 
came  to  seek  and  to  save  the  lost. 

The  number  of  the  followers  of  Jesus 
was  very  large.  All  the  cities  of  the 
Roman  world  had  Christian  communities 
in  them.     There  were  Christians  among 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  125 

the  slaves  as  well  as  saints  among  the 
household  of  Caesar.  All  ranks  of  society 
contributed  to  the  membership  to  be 
found  in  the  early  church. 

Cities  mostly  are  mentioned  in  the 
missionary  labors  of  the  apostles.  And 
yet  the  villages  were  not  overlooked.  The 
cities,  however,  formed  the  strategic  cen- 
ters from  which  as  a  base  they  could  carry 
on  an  active  propaganda  into  the  sur- 
rounding country. 

After  all,  we  too  frequently  infer  from 
the  repeated  references  to  the  cities  in 
the  ministry  of  the  early  missionaries  that 
in  the  days  of  the  apostles  the  Christian 
communities  were  confined  principally  to 
the  cities.  Jesus  bade  the  apostles  to  be 
his  witnesses  in  all  Judsea  and  Samaria; 
and  reasoning  from  the  thorough  manner 
in  which  they  evangelized  the  provinces 
of  Palestine,  it  is  most  certain  to  assume 
that  they  followed  the  same  effective 
means  elsewhere. 

That  the  apostles  promoted  the  entire 
evangelization  of  the  rural  sections  and 
the  villages  is  evidenced  by  a  statement 
from  Pliny,  who  aflfirms  in  a  letter  which 


126  NEW  THOUGHTS 

was  written  very  late  in  the  first  Chris- 
tian century  that  the  whole  province  of 
Bithynia  was  overrun  with  the  believers 
in  Jesus.  Pliny  was  set  for  the  execution 
of  the  Christians,  and  he  reasons  from 
their  great  number  that  their  slaughter 
would  be  too  general,  even  for  a  Roman. 

WTiy  should  it  be  supposed  that  the 
single  province  of  Bithynia  was  more 
thoroughly  evangeHzed  than  other  prov- 
inces more  easily  accessible  and  upon 
which  the  apostles  bestowed  more  abun- 
dant labor? 

Consider  the  province  of  Asia.  John 
writes  the  Revelation  to  the  seven  churches 
in  this  one  province.  There  were  bodies 
of  Christians  in  Ephesus,  Smyrna,  Per- 
gamum,Thyatira,  Sardis,  Philadelphia,  and 
Laodicea.  In  addition  to  these  groups, 
Paul  writes  to  the  church  in  Colossae. 
And  then  Philip  had  his  residence  in 
Hierapolis.  Besides,  the  three  letters  of 
John  are  also  written  to  groups  in  this 
same  province.  We  are  justified  in  say- 
ing that  all  Asia  was  evangelized  as  thor- 
oughly as  all  Judaea. 

That  Bithynia  and  Asia  were  no  excep- 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  127 

tions  among  the  provinces,  singled  out 
particularly  by  apostles  who  were  bidden 
to  disciple  all  of  the  nations  and  not  some 
of  the  nations,  may  be  further  inferred 
from  the  fact  that  like  the  Revelation  of 
John,  which  was  addressed  to  seven 
churches  in  the  province  of  Asia,  the 
Epistle  of  Paul  to  the  Galatians  is  writ- 
ten to  the  churches  in  the  province  of 
Galatia. 

We  are  fully  prepared  now  for  the 
testimony  of  TertuUian,  who  said  that  the 
Christian  behevers  had  so  grown  in  num- 
bers that  they  formed  a  considerable  pro- 
portion even  of  the  armies  of  the  empire 
of  Rome. 

Right  royally  then  wrought  these  apos- 
tohc  heroes  of  the  Christ.  The  Word 
itself  bears  eloquent  testimony  to  their 
labors.  They  are  said  to  have  gone  forth 
and  preached  everywhere.  Their  full  de- 
votion to  the  supreme  enterprise  upon 
which  they  embarked  at  the  command  of 
Christ  is  all  the  better  understood  when 
we  note  the  number  of  the  apostles  who 
lie  buried  in  missionary  graves. 

How  many  do  you  suppose  of  the  orig- 


128  NEW  THOUGHTS 

inal  group  of  our  Lord's  twelve  apostles 
lie  buried  in  their  native  land? 

When  the  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise 
first,  from  what  widely  scattered  lands  of 
the  Old  World  shall  the  apostles  come? 

1.  Peter  was  crucified  head  downward 
in  the  Neroian  persecution  which  also 
claimed  the  apostle  Paul.  Both  Paul  and 
Peter  met  death  in  Rome,  and  their  dust 
lies  in  the  land  of  Italy. 

2.  Andrew  was  crucified  in  Achaia  on 
a  cross  which  ever  afterward  has  borne 
his  name. 

3.  James  was  the  first  among  the  twelve 
to  suffer  martyrdom.  He  was  beheaded 
by  Herod  the  king  in  Jerusalem  in  Judaea. 

4.  John  had  his  sepulcher  in  the  city 
of  Ephesus  in  Asia. 

5.  Philip  met  a  violent  death  in  Hier- 
apolis  in  Asia. 

6.  Nathanael  Bartholomew  was  crucified 
in  Armenia. 

7.  Thomas  was  martyred  in  India. 

8.  Matthew  Hkewise  met  his  death  in 
India. 

9.  James  the  son  of  Alphseus  met  death 
in  a  foreign  land. 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  129 

10.  Thaddaeus  went  from  Africa  to  be 
forever  with  his  Lord. 

11.  Simon  the  Canansean  passed  to  his 
reward  from  the  land  of  Egypt. 

12.  Judas  Iscariot  was  buried  in  the 
land  of  Judaea. 

Eleven  of  the  twelve  were  Galilaeans. 

The  solitary  apostle  who  was  not  a 
Galilsean  was  the  man  from  Judsea. 

It  is  very  interesting  to  note  that  only 
one  of  the  apostles  was  buried  in  his 
native  land. 

The  sepulchers  of  the  apostles  are  all 
the  way  from  India  to  Italy,  and  from 
Armenia  to  Egypt.  The  apostles  lie  in 
missionary  graves  on  the  three  continents 
of  Europe,  Africa,  and  Asia.  The  earthly 
resting  places  of  these  intrepid  souls  are 
in  Italy,  Achaia,  Asia,  Armenia,  India, 
Egypt,  and  other  foreign  lands. 

Judas  Iscariot  was  a  Judsean.  And 
Judas  Iscariot  alone  of  all  the  twelve 
apostles  lies  buried  in  his  native  land. 

Then  every  apostle  except  one  gave  his 
life  to  the  missionary  enterprise.  "Judas 
Iscariot  who  also  betrayed  him"  was  the 
only  one  among  the  twelve  apostles  who 


130  NEW  THOUGHTS 

did  not  become  a  missionary.  And  so 
the  only  one  among  the  twelve  apostles 
who  did  not  become  a  missionary  became 
a  traitor. 

You  do  not  believe  in  missions,  did 
you  say.^  Well,  neither  did  Judas  Is- 
cariot.  And  it  surely  ought  not  to  be  a 
matter  of  much  pride  for  anyone  to  find 
that  his  views  of  the  missionary  enter- 
prise were  first  shared  by  the  one  man 
among  the  twelve  who  betrayed  his  Master 
with  a  traitor's  kiss. 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  131 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  ATTRIBUTE  OF  EVERLAST- 
ING AS  APPLIED  TO  BOOKS 

The  four  Gospels  form  the  most  price- 
less literary  treasure  in  all  the  world.  To 
the  end  of  the  ages  these  four  writings 
of  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John  will 
be  unrivaled,  for  theirs  is  the  life  story 
of  the  Altogether  Lovely  One,  the  Fairest 
among  ten  thousand,  the  Bright  and  the 
Morning  Star.  There  were  others  who 
wrote  out  the  wonderful  story  of  the  life 
of  Jesus  besides  these  four.  But  only 
the  Gospels  according  to  Matthew,  Mark, 
Luke,  and  John  have  outlived  the  long 
centuries,  and  are  destined  still  to  out- 
live all  the  centuries. 

The  author  of  the  first  named  among 
the  Gospels  is  Matthew;  and  Matthew 
was  a  publican.  It  is  eminently  fitting 
that  the  Gospel  which  was  written  by  a 
publican  should  portray  in  captivating 
grandeur  the  kingliness  of  Christ.  As  tax 
collector  for  the  Romans  the  man  Matthew 
had  grown  familiar  with  the  earthly  roy- 


132  NEW  THOUGHTS 

alty  of  his  day.  He  knew  how  empty 
of  all  reality  were  those  semblances  of 
power.  And  on  the  day  that  the  real 
King  passed  by  and  saw  him  sitting  at 
the  seat  of  custom,  Matthew  recognized 
the  Lord  of  Glory,  the  King  of  kings,  the 
Desire  of  all  nations,  the  Prince  of  Peace. 
So  Matthew's  Gospel  portrays  the  kingli- 
ness  of  Christ  in  such  fine  fashion  as  to 
most  beautifully  fulfill  the  expectations  of 
his  race.  And  Matthew's  Gospel  is  writ- 
ten primarily  to  the  Jews.  Its  truths  are 
universal,  yet  its  materials  are  assembled 
in  a  manner  to  carry  conviction  to  the 
members  of  that  race  among  whom  the 
Master  himself  was  bom,  and  whose 
hopes  he  came  to  fulfill. 

Matthew  wrote  a  Gospel  in  Aramaic. 
Hebrew  was  the  language  of  Holy  Writ, 
and  the  official  language  of  the  synagogues. 
However,  during  the  days  of  the  Baby- 
lonian captivity,  the  Jews  acquired  Ara- 
maic, and  upon  their  return  to  the  prom- 
ised land  Aramaic  became  the  language 
of  the  common  people.  The  Jewish  trans- 
lations of  the  Old  Testament  writings  and 
other  religious  literature  of  the  times  of 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  133 

the  apostles  were  almost  altogether  written 
in  Aramaic.  It  is  most  interesting  that 
Matthew  is  known  to  have  written  a 
Gospel  in  Aramaic,  the  language  not  only 
of  the  Jews  in  Palestine  but  also  the 
language  which  was  spoken  by  the  Jews 
in  the  other  lands  to  which  they  had 
gone.  A  Gospel,  then,  that  should  make 
its  strongest  appeal  to  the  people  for 
whom  it  was  intended  would  most 
naturally  be  written  in  the  language 
which  they  would  most  easily  understand, 
and  the  language  which  would  be  used 
by  them  in  their  other  religious  writings. 
It  is  very  probable  that  Matthew  hoped 
to  win  to  Jesus  that  large  body  of  his 
fellow  countrymen  scattered  abroad  whose 
expectations  of  the  coming  kingly  Messiah 
would  be  fully  realized  in  Jesus  of  Naz- 
areth, the  King  of  the  Jews. 

The  first  year  of  our  Lord's  earthly 
ministry  was  spent  in  an  attempt  to  win 
the  important  religious  leaders  in  Jeru- 
salem. And  that  year  is  known  as  the 
year  of  obscurity  in  our  Lord's  life.  It 
was  a  year  of  intense  activity;  but  at  its 
close  there  were  no  justifying  results.    And 


134  NEW  THOUGHTS 

Jesus  turned  to  the  fishermen  and  the 
publicans,  from  which  groups  the  dis- 
ciples were  so  largely  drawn.  And  just 
so  the  Gospel  of  Matthew,  written  in 
Aramaic  expressly  to  reach  the  religious 
leaders  among  his  own  people,  fell  so  far 
short  of  accomplishing  what  Matthew  had 
in  mind  that  it  has  now  been  completely 
lost  to  the  knowledge  of  men. 

Matthew  also  wrote  his  Gospel  in 
Greek.  To  that  fact  we  probably  owe  the 
preservation  of  this  Gospel.  But  why  did 
Matthew  write  at  all  in  Greek?  There  is 
only  one  suflBcient  answer.  The  ever- 
widening  campaign  to  carry  the  glad 
tidings  to  all  nations  made  it  imperative 
that  his  Gospel  should  also  be  written 
in  the  one  language  which  carried  farthest 
in  that  missionary  day. 

The  author  of  the  Gospel  of  Mark 
enjoyed  a  unique  privilege.  In  his  Chris- 
tian service  he  had  intimate  acquaintance 
with  three  of  the  wonder  men  in  the  early 
church:  Peter,  Barnabas,  and  Paul.  John 
Mark  accompanied  Barnabas  and  Saul  on 
the  first  missionary  journey;  and,  in  com- 
pany with  Barnabas,  made  a  later  visit 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  135 

to  the  earlier  mission  fields.  Following 
these  evangelizing  journeys  with  his  uncle, 
Mark  joined  Peter  in  extensive  tours  to 
many  mission  lands.  Later  still  Mark 
once  again  comes  into  fellowship  and 
service  with  the  great  apostle  to  the  Gen- 
tiles; for,  in  his  pastoral  epistles,  Paul 
refers  to  the  value  of  John  Mark  to  him 
in  the  ministry. 

Mark's  Gospel  was  evidently  intended 
for  Gentile  readers.  This  is  clearly  seen 
from  the  fact  that  Hebrew  or  Aramaic 
names  and  expressions  are  explained. 
Then  the  Old  Testament  is  only  once 
quoted  by  the  evangelist  in  his  own 
narrative,  while  the  law  is  not  even  men- 
tioned. In  reducing  money  to  the  Roman 
equivalent,  in  speaking  of  Pilate  as  though 
the  first  readers  would  know  who  was 
meant,  and  in  the  frequent  use  of  Latin 
words,  it  is  concluded  that  the  Gospel  of 
Mark  was  written  in  Rome.  This  pic- 
turesque story  of  the  life  and  labors  of 
the  eternal  Son  of  God  was  originally  in- 
tended for  a  Roman  community  of  Gen- 
tile believers. 

The    Gospel    of    Luke    pictures    in    an 


136  NEW  THOUGHTS 

unusual  degree  the  Gospel  of  a  gratuitous 
and  universal  salvation.  In  the  Gospel 
of  Luke  love  embraces  all  mankind. 
Throughout  the  Gospel  Christ's  com- 
passion for  the  poor  is  exhibited  in  a 
remarkable  degree.  The  Saviour  himself 
is  born  among  the  lowly;  his  parents  offer 
for  him  the  sacrifice  for  the  poor.  In 
later  life  he  had  not  where  to  lay  his  head. 
And  the  Gospel  of  Luke  is  the  Gospel  of 
a  wonderful  salvation — a  salvation  that 
can  save  unto  the  uttermost,  and  that 
reaches  even  to  the  thief  upon  the  cross. 
Luke's  Gospel  portrays  the  Son  of  man 
as  the  Saviour  and  the  Friend  of  all. 
This  is  the  Gospel  of  the  publican,  and 
of  the  outcast,  and  of  the  weeping  Mag- 
dalene, and  of  the  crucified  malefactors, 
and  of  the  good  Samaritan,  and  of  the 
prodigal  son.  It  is  the  inclusive  Gospel 
for  all  the  world. 

Luke's  Gospel  was  written  for  Gen- 
tiles. The  author  himself  was  a  Gentile, 
and  the  Gospel  is  addressed  to  a  Gentile, 
Theophilus  by  name. 

John's  Gospel  was  written  outside  the 
homeland  of  Palestine.     This  is  seen  in 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  137 

the  author's  unique  way  of  referring  to 
the  Jews.  His  frequent  references  to  the 
Jewish  land  and  customs  can  be  fully 
understood  alone  in  the  viewpoint  of  the 
Gospel  having  been  written  from  a  foreign 
land.  And  John's  Gospel  was  written 
primarily  for  the  converts  of  the  foreign 
missionaries.  It  was  intended  at  the  first 
for  Gentile  readers,  as  may  be  inferred 
from  the  many  subtle  suggestions  and 
explanations  of  manners  and  customs 
throughout  the  book  which  make  the 
message  all  the  clearer  to  non-Jewish 
readers. 

In  scarcely  no  other  way  can  the 
world's  great  debt  to  the  foreign  mis- 
sionary enterprise  be  so  clearly  realized 
as  in  the  single  matter  of  the  writing  of 
the  very  Gospels  themselves. 

The  Gospel  of  Matthew  was  written  for 
the  members  of  his  own  race,  dispersed 
among  the  nations. 

The  Gospel  of  Mark  was  written  to 
perpetuate  the  story  of  redeeming  love 
as  it  had  been  proclaimed  by  Peter  in 
his  foreign  missionary  labors. 

The   Gospel   of   Luke   was   written   to 


138  NEW  THOUGHTS 

confirm  the  faith  of  a  Gentile  convert  who 
had  been  won  by  the  missionaries  in  a 
foreign  land. 

The  Gospel  of  John  was  written  to  sus- 
tain the  Christian  confidence  of  those  who 
had  been  lately  won  to  faith  in  Jesus 
through  the  work  of  missionaries. 

Therefore,  if  it  had  not  been  for  the 
missionary  enterprise,  the  Gospels  as  we 
now  know  them  would  never  have  been 
written  at  all.     This  is  a  self-evident  truth. 

Only  a  foreign  missionary  could  write 
an  everlasting  Gospel.  If  proof  is  sought 
for  this  self-evident  proposition,  the  proof 
may  be  found  in  the  fact  that  only  foreign 
missionaries  did  write  everlasting  Gospels. 

A  great  many  people  attempted  to 
write  Gospels.  But  no  other  than  Mat- 
thew, Mark,  Luke,  and  John  wrote  Gos- 
pels which  the  world  would  not  allow  to 
die.  Broken  fragments  of  the  other 
Gospels  are  found  now  and  again.  These 
mostly  are  unrelated  sayings  of  Jesus. 
And  although  several  hundred  such  shat- 
tered bits  have  been  recovered  so  far, 
yet  not  one  of  these  broken  bits  adds 
aught  of  value  to  the  Gospel  story. 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  139 

An  everlasting  Gospel  could  not  be 
written  in  the  environment  of  Jerusalem. 
For  if  the  missionaries  m  the  early  church 
had  waited  until  they  received  the  full 
approval  of  the  church  in  Jerusalem,  the 
gospel  would  never  have  been  preached 
to  the  Gentiles.  So  they  who  did  not 
love  their  Lord  enough  to  obey  his  last 
command,  did  not  know  him  well  enough 
to  write  his  love  message  for  the  world. 
Wherefore,  only  foreign  missionaries  could 
write  an  everlasting  gospel,  because  only 
foreign  missionaries  did. 


140  NEW  THOUGHTS 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  HIGHEST  EXPRESSION  OF 
THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

"You  will  see  by  the  morning  paper 
what  the  people  in  China  think  of  the 
foreign  missionaries!"  were  the  words 
with  which  he  greeted  me  that  morning 
in  the  Pullman. 

I  had  not  seen  the  morning  paper,  for 
I  like  to  read  something  better  first  in 
the  morning;  and  yet  I  knew  that  in  all 
probability  there  had  been  a  disturbance 
of  some  kind.  Perhaps  a  bit  of  mob 
violence  had  been  visited  upon  some 
mission  station.    And  so  I  answered, 

"Strange  as  it  may  seem,  that  is  the 
way  the  missionaries  are  usually  treated 
in  all  lands  where  they  first  go  to  preach 
the  gospel.  It  is  the  way  they  were 
treated  when  they  first  landed  on  the 
shores  of  the  continent  in  which  they 
finally  reached  and  evangelized  our  own 
forefathers." 

At  the  mention  of  our  own  forefathers 
the  traveler  said,  with  quick  eagerness: 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  141 

"What  is  your  authority  for  that,  sir?** 

"The  story  is  told  in  a  very  old  book," 
I  answered;  "a  very  old  book  that  is 
not  read  very  much  any  more." 

"Where  can  I  get  a  copy  of  that  book?" 
the  man  replied,  with  apparent  interest. 

"I  am  not  quite  sure,"  I  said;  "for  it 
is  a  very  old  book." 

"Do  you  suppose  I  could  get  a  copy 
of  it  at  the  news  stand?"  the  man  inquired. 

"I  think  not,"  I  said;  "for  I  never  saw 
a  copy  of  that  old  book  at  any  news 
stand." 

"Could  I  get  a  copy  in  a  bookstore?" 
the  man  persisted. 

"I  doubt  it,"  I  said;  "for  it  is  a  rather 
rare  book,  very  old,  and  not  read  very 
much  any  more." 

"Have  you  ever  read  a  copy  of  it?" 
the  man  asked. 

"Yes,  I  have." 

"Would  you  mind  telling  me  about  it?" 
he  asked. 

And  as  I  told  him  the  story  of  the 
experiences  which  befell  Paul  at  Philippi, 
it  was  an  interesting  study  to  note  the 
transformation  which  was  wrought  in  the 


142  NEW  THOUGHTS 

man's  face,  as  for  the  first  time  appar- 
ently he  associated  the  apostohc  mission- 
ary enterprise  with  the  evangehzation  of 
the  continent  on  which  our  own  fore- 
fathers hved. 

As  I  finished  the  old,  old  story  of  Paul 
in  Philippi,  the  man  asked:  "Are  you  a 
foreign  missionary?" 

"Yes,"  I  said;  "that  is  the  deepest  joy 
in  my  life,  next  to  the  joy  I  have  in  my 
Saviour." 

"To  what  people  did  you  go  as  a  mis- 
sionary?" he  inquired,  in  what  appeared 
to  me  to  be  a  real  spirit  of  earnest  inquiry. 

"I  went  as  a  missionary  to  the  Pam- 
pangans,"  I  replied. 

"Did  they  ask  you  to  come?"  he  asked, 
in  that  same  spirit  of  seeming  earnestness. 

"No,"  I  said;  "they  did  not  ask  me  to 
come." 

"Then  why  did  you  go?"  he  demanded, 
sharply,  in  utter  contrast  to  the  mild 
manner  he  had  assumed  but  a  brief  in- 
stant before. 

For  the  moment  I  was  quite  startled 
at  his  sudden  change  of  manner,  and  at 
the   self-confident   mood    which   he   now 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  143 

manifested.  However,  in  answer  to  his 
startling  question  I  told  this  incident 
which  happened  in  my  college  days. 

"I  was  on  my  way  to  my  room  one 
wintry  night,  when,  as  I  passed  in  front 
of  the  college  president's  home,  my  atten- 
tion was  attracted  to  a  brilliant  light  in 
the  rear  room  of  the  Morgan  home  next 
door.  The  reflecting  flicker  of  flames  upon 
the  window  was  such  as  might  be  occa- 
sioned by  the  fire  in  an  open  stove.  And 
yet  as  I  thought  about  it,  if  the  bright 
reflection  were  from  the  flames  of  an  open 
stove,  there  ought  to  be  a  part  of  the 
room  in  a  deep  shadow,  and  here  the 
entire  room  appeared  to  be  full  of  light.  ] 

"There  was  a  high  wind  blowing,  and 
most  of  the  buildings  in  the  college  town 
were  frame  dwellings,  with  only  the  most 
meager  fire  protection.  Should  a  fire  get 
under  way  a  stormy  night  like  that,  it 
would  mean  the  loss  of  most  of  the  town. 
And  so  I  ran  hurriedly  across  the  lawn 
of  the  president's  home,  and  then  over 
the  Morgan  yard,  and  came  directly  under 
the  brilliantly  lighted  window  of  the  room 
above — and   there   I   was  standing  right 


144  NEW  THOUGHTS 

in  front  of  the  dining  room  window  of 
the  Morgan  home.  It  was  supper  time 
in  that  home,  and  seated  about  the  table, 
enjoying  their  evening  meal,  were  the 
four  members  of  the  family — father, 
mother,  son,  and  daughter.  But  just  as 
I  came  to  the  dining  room  window  flames 
in  the  room  above  caught  the  lace  curtain 
and  sprang  instantly  to  the  ceiling.  And 
there,  in  the  dining  room  below,  all  un- 
conscious of  the  fire  raging  in  the  room 
above,  sat  the  family  engaged  in  the 
beautiful  custom  of  eating  their  evening 
meal  together.  Some  bit  of  good-humored 
pleasantry  had  just  gone  the  rounds  of 
the  family  circle  and  they  broke  into  a 
hearty  laugh;  and  not  wishing  to  disturb 
them,  nor  caring  to  interfere  with  their 
family  customs,  and  because  they  did  not 
ask  me  to  tell  them  that  their  house  was 
on  fire — I  walked  on  home  to  my  room!" 

"No,  you  didn't!"  exclaimed  my  new- 
found friend. 

"Well,  what  did  I  do  then?"  I  asked. 

"You  yelled  Tire!'  as  loud  as  ever  you 
could!"  he  replied. 

"Yes,  I  yelled  Tire!'  and  even  before 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  145 

I  could  reach  their  front  door,  the  Mor- 
gans were  all  there,  eager  and  ready 
to  help  to  put  out  the  fire  in  some  other 
house,  little  imagining  that  their  own 
home  was  on  fire. 

"And  yet  they  did  not  ask  me  to  tell 
them  that  their  house  was  on  fire!  How- 
ever, if  I  had  known  their  house  was  on 
fire,  and  had  not  told — and  the  fact  that 
I  had  known  a  house  was  on  fire,  and 
had  not  told — had  ever  become  known 
about  me,  there  is  no  community  in 
America  where  I  afterward  would  have 
been  allowed  to  live  in  peace. 

"No,  the  Pampangans  did  not  ask  me 
to  come,  but  I  knew  the  peril  of  people 
who  are  out  of  Christ;  and  I  knew  what 
the  love  of  Christ  means  to  the  life;  and, 
knowing  that,  I  was  bound  to  go  and 
tell  them." 

According  to  the  apostles,  the  mission- 
ary is  the  highest  expression  of  the  Chris- 
tian life. 

There  is  little  wonder  that  the  ancient 
copyists  of  the  writings  of  John  should 
have  confused  a  word  in  his  first  epistle, 
for  the  missionary  idea  is  ever  so  hard 


146  NEW  THOUGHTS 

to  understand  apparently,  and  the  idea 
itself  is  not  always  welcome,  even  to  the 
believers.  John  tells  why  he  is  writing 
his  epistle,  and  his  words  are  very  illu- 
minating, "And  these  things  we  write  that 
our  joy  may  be  made  full."  And  the 
word  "our"  was  so  little  understood  that 
the  copyists  frequently  render  it  "your." 
So  far  short  of  the  higher  knowledge  of 
the  Christian  life  do  we  mostly  come 
that  we  have  lost  the  fullness  of  meaning 
in  the  finding  of  our  joy  in  the  other's 
good.  That  fullness  of  joy  is  known  in 
exquisite  delight  to  the  missionary  alone. 

That  the  apostles  regard  the  mission- 
ary as  the  highest  expression  of  the 
Christian  life  is  seen  in  their  universal 
practice.  In  actual  experience  each  one  of 
them  became  a  missionary  himself.  And 
the  only  one  among  the  twelve  apostles 
who  did  not  become  a  missionary  became 
a  traitor. 

In  naming  the  gifts  which  God  had 
bestowed  upon  men  Paul  always  names 
the  calling  to  be  a  missionary  first  of 
all.  As  though  the  fact  of  a  man  being 
a  missionary  is  the  one  privilege  above 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  147 

all  others.  "And  He  gave  some  to  be 
apostles;  and  some,  prophets;  and  some, 
to  be  evangelists;  and  some,  pastors  and 
teachers." 

Paul  looked  upon  the  missionary  as  the 
highest  expression  of  the  Christian  life. 
We  listen  eagerly  to  the  words  Paul 
speaks,  and  we  hear  him  say,  "I  am  debtor 
to  the  Greek!" 

"Yes,  Paul;  we  understand  how  greatly 
indebted  you  are  to  the  Greek." 

Surprised  beyond  measure  at  our  inter- 
ruption, the  great  missionary  hastens  to 
say,  "You  greatly  overestimate  my  debt 
to  the  Greek;  for  the  Greek  is  far  more 
in  debt  to  me  than  I  am  in  debt  to 
him." 

And  then,  as  though  not  noting  our 
interruption,  the  mighty  missionary  con- 
tinues, "I  am  debtor  to  the  barbarian!" 

"Why,  Paul!"  we  exclaim;  "you  in  debt 
to  the  barbarian!  WTiat  did  a  barbarian 
ever  do  for  you?" 

"You  do  not  understand,"  our  great 
missionary  replies;  "I  am  in  debt  to  the 
barbarian,  not  because  of  an;yi:hing  the 
barbarian  ever  has  done  for  me,  but  I 


148  NEW  THOUGHTS 

am  in  debt  to  the  barbarian  because  of 
what  I  can  do  for  him!" 

That  is  the  highest  expression  of  the 
Christian  life. 

That  is  the  Golden  Rule  in  action. 

O,  Paul,  I  am  so  glad  that  you  realized 
that  you  were  in  debt  to  the  barbarian! 
I  am  so  glad  that  you  paid  in  full  that 
debt  of  yours  to  the  barbarian!  I  am 
so  glad  for  all  that  you  did  for  the  bar- 
barian, for  in  those  days  my  ancestors 
were  all  among  the  barbarians! 

How  far  short  we  all  come  of  the  glory 
of  God  as  it  is  seen  in  the  face  of  Jesus 
Christ!  Only  the  missionary  who  fol- 
lowed his  Master  into  the  missionary 
enterprise  was  able  to  say,  "Follow  me, 
as  I  follow  Christ!" 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  149 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  PROPOSITION  AS  IT 
NOW  STANDS 

Here,  then,  is  the  obligation  which 
each  succeeding  generation  is  under  to  the 
foreign  missionary  enterprise:  If  it  had 
not  been  for  the  foreign  missionary  enter- 
prise, the  world  would  never  have  had 
the  Bible  at  all. 

1.  Every  book  in  the  New  Testament 
was  written  by  a  foreign  missionary. 

2.  Every  epistle  in  the  New  Testament 
that  was  written  to  a  church  was  written 
to  a  foreign  missionary  church. 

3.  Every  letter  in  the  New  Testament 
that  was  written  to  an  individual  was 
written  to  the  convert  of  a  foreign  mis- 
sionary. 

4.  Every  book  in  the  New  Testament 
that  was  written  to  a  community  of  be- 
lievers was  written  to  a  general  group  of 
foreign  missionary  churches. 

5.  The  one  book  of  prophecy  in  the 
New  Testament  was  written  to  the  seven 
foreign  missionary  churches  in  Asia. 


150  NEW  THOUGHTS 

6.  The  only  authoritative  history  of  the 
early  Christian  Church  is  merely  a  for- 
eign missionary  journal. 

7.  The  disciples  were  called  Christians 
first  in  a  foreign  missionary  community. 

8.  The  language  of  the  books  of  the  New 
Testament  is  the  missionary's  language. 

9.  The  map  of  the  early  Christian 
world  is  the  tracings  of  the  missionary 
journeys  of  the  apostles. 

10.  The  problems  which  arose  in  the 
early  church  were  largely  questions  of 
missionary  procedure. 

11.  Of  the  twelve  apostles  chosen  by 
Jesus,  every  apostle  except  one  became  a 
missionary. 

12.  The  only  man  among  the  twelve 
apostles  who  did  not  become  a  missionary 
became  the  traitor. 

13.  Only  a  foreign  missionary  could 
write  an  everlasting  Gospel. 

14.  According  to  the  apostles,  the  mis- 
sionary is  the  highest  expression  of  the 
Christian  life. 

Therefore,  if  it  had  not  been  for  the 
missionary  enterprise,  the  world  would 
never  have  had  the  Bible  at  all. 


ON  AN  OLD  BOOK  151 

This  study,  however,  is  related  only  to 
the  New  Testament.  Would  not  the  world 
have  had  that  portion  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures which  we  know  as  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, even  if  there  had  never  been  a 
New  Testament? 

The  world  has  the  Old  Testament  at 
the  present  time,  because  of  the  New 
Testament.  For  they  who  have  always 
been  in  possession  of  the  Old  Testament 
alone  have  never  given  it  to  the  world, 
and  never  would. 

The  New  Testament  books  are  pre- 
eminently the  Christian  Scriptures.  And 
for  every  "jot  and  tittle"  of  the  Christian 
Scriptures  the  world  is  in  debt  entirely 
to  the  foreign  missionary  enterprise. 


':'^;''^'S'?S1 


BS538.B88 

New  thoughts  on  an  old  book, 

Princeton  Theological  Semmary-Speer  Library 


